4th meeting of the Dynamic Coalition on Internet and Climate Change to be held in Nairobi, Kenya

The 4th meeting of the Dynamic Coalition on Internet and Climate Change (DCICC)
will be held on the 30 of September in Nairobi, Kenya during the 6th annual
Internet Governance Forum (IGF). The DCICC meeting will be opened by Chairman
H.E. Hasanual Haq Inu, MP of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Parliamentary
Standing Committee for Ministry of Post and Telecommunication.

The meeting will be held in conjunction with a workshop on Green ICTs and
Innovation, moderated by Ms. Nevine Tewfik, Deputy Director of International
Relations, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Egypt. The
meeting will be the latest of a series of events to promote knowledge sharing on
environmental impacts associated with the Internet.

The meeting will bring together key specialists in the field, from government
officials to private sector specialists, such as Microsoft, to public sector
specialists, such as the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and
European Broadcasting Union (EBU), to international organization experts, such
as UNEP, among others.

New York, July 26: The United Nations High-Level Meeting on Youth, hosted at the UN Headquarters in New York on 25 and 26 July 2011, focused on the views of young people as important stakeholders in modern society. ITU’s side event held on the first day of the conference sought to address the issue of “ICTs and Youth: A Catalyst for Peace, Human Rights and Development” and featured panelists Mr Gary Fowlie of ITU's New York Liaison Office, Mr Doug Court of ITU Geneva and Mr Tik Root, a young American student who found himself inadvertently caught up in the events of the recent Arab Spring.

A key message coming from the event was that ICTs can and should be used to support article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states that: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; which includes the freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, recieve and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers”.

ITU has been looking to engage with young people throughout the year 2011, via the Broadband Commission Working Group on Youth chaired by ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré. This group is soliciting input for a visual vision statement which calls for Internet and, more specifically, broadband services to be made more widely available at affordable prices. The group also hopes to bring the concerns and ideas of young people to the attention of the Broadband Commissioners during the upcoming Broadband Leadership Summit scheduled for 24 and 25 October in Geneva. To find out more or to join the conversation, visit www.facebook.com/broadbandcommission.

On July 2011 ITU became a partner of the One UN Training Service Platform for
Climate Change (UN CC:Learn), an
initiative driven by a partnership of 29 UN agencies to support Member States,
international and regional organizations and other development partners in
designing and implementing an effective approach of sustainable learning to
address climate change.

The UN CC:Learn platform, launched at the 2009 UN Conference on Climate Change
(COP-15), is part of the “One
UN Climate Change Action Framework” of the UN System Chief Executives Board
for Coordination (CEB). Through this online platform UN CC:Learn partners
contribute to the implementation of Article 6 of the UNFCCC on training and
education, fostering knowledge-sharing by delivering and evaluating climate
change learning activities and materials at the global, regional and national
level. Access to the online database of materials is free of charge and open to
any stakeholder. The platform also includes a section of news related with
partners of the initiative.

As a first step in this collaboration, ITU background resources on ICTs and
climate change have been added to the UN CC:Learn library. Future collaboration
will include the development of a One UN Training Package on climate change, as
well as new introductory and advanced learning packages on specific climate
change issues. Click
here to access ITU’s materials at the UN CC:Learn library.

Sixth ITU Symposium on ICTs and climate change to open this week in Accra, Ghana

The Sixth ITU Symposium on ICTs, the Environment and Climate Change will be
opened on 7-8 of July in Accra, Ghana by the Director of ITU’s Telecommunication
Standardization Bureau, Mr Malcolm Johnson, and their excellences Ms Sherry
Ayittey, Minister of Environment, Science and Technology of Ghana and Mr Haruna
Iddrisu, Minister of Communications of Ghana.

Key sessions to be held throughout the 2-day event will include the High-Level
Segment “From Cancun via Accra to Durban – A Roadmap on ICTs, Climate Change and
the Environment”, which will aim to set transparent policy objectives and
targets to measure and improve government green ICT strategies. Speakers at this
session will include, among others their excellences Mr Ruhakana Rugunda,
Minister of Information and Communication Technology of Uganda and Mr Nelson
Chamisa, Minister of Information and Communication Technology of Zimbabwe,
together with Mr. Kyle Whitehill, CEO of Vodafone Ghana and M. Lawrence Atiase,
Secretary General of the African Broadcasting Union.

The symposium will cover a broad number of topics related with the key role of
ICTs to address climate change and environmental protection. Topics will range
from climate change adaptation space and climate change and the impacts of e-waste.
Overall more than 30 speakers will take part in the event, covering the points
of view of governmental agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency of
Ghana, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan,
JapanMeteoFrance or NASA, private sector companies, such as Microsoft, RIM, HP
or France Telecom, or international organizations, such as the UNFCCC, WMO or
the Secretariat of the Basel Convention, among others.

The event will be chaired by Mr. Paarock Vanpercy, Director General of the
National Communications Authority (NCA) of Ghana. Click
here to access the full program of the symposium. For more information on
ITU’s activities on climate change refer to
www.itu.int/climate.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Today hundreds of Internet giants, including Google and Facebook, are participating in the first worldwide "test flight" of a major engineering upgrade to the Internet's infrastructure.

Read the full article at http://money.cnn.com/2011/06/08/technology/ipv6_day_google_facebook/index.htm?hpt=hp_t2

Wednesday, 08 June 2011 14:32:44 (Romance Standard Time, UTC+01:00)
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CCK seeks protection for kids on Internet

The Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) is seeking to develop a comprehensive framework that protects the safety of children on the Internet, following increasing dangers of prowling cyber criminals. The commission has invited various stakeholders to help it come up with 'practical' tools that will enable it to minimise the risks to children.

"CCK is cognisant of the fact that cyber crime is a multi-sectoral issue and therefore requires the support and collective effort of different stakeholders with various competencies," said Director General Charles Njoroge during a 'Child Online Protection' workshop.

This approach, he pointed out, would complement the activities of the Consumer Awareness Division that is tasked with the responsibility of reaching out to all consumers of communications services including children.

Further, Mr Njoroge said it would be in line with the International Telecommunications Union's Child Online Protection (COP) initiative that was launched in November 2010 with the aim of developing industry codes of conduct, establishing national hotlines, roadmaps and legislative tool kits and training of parents, teachers, guardians and educators.

The second major output document of the ITU/UNESCO-led Broadband Commission for Digital Development was released on June 6, at the 3rd meeting of the Commission in Paris, France.

Entitled Broadband: A Platform for Progress, the report advocates a coordinated, nationwide approach to broadband development that more closely resembles the development of national railway or electricity networks than the more laissez-faire, market-driven approach that has generally characterized the roll-out of mobile cellular technology.

The report also makes a strong case for broadband as a driver of economic growth and new jobs, citing country case studies and reports by leading consultancies that point to increased employment opportunities, higher labour productivity and a strong stimulus to GDP.

Positive findings released recently by ITU show that, on average, consumers are paying 50% less for high-speed Internet connections than they were two years ago. However, this fall is mainly due to price decreases in developing countries, with steep declines often reflecting the extremely high cost of broadband in the developing world.

And despite encouraging trends, Africa continues to stand out for its relatively high prices. Fixed broadband Internet access in particular remains prohibitively high, and, across the region as a whole, still represented almost three times the monthly average per capita income. Only one out of ten people in Africa is using the Internet.

Read the press release at http://www.itu.int/net/pressoffice/press_releases/2011/19.aspx

According to the latest IEA estimates, energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2)
emissions in 2010 were the highest in history, while 80 per cent of projected
emissions from the power sector in 2020 are already locked in, largely due to
infrastructure investment. IEA concludes in the
2010 World Energy Outlook that
it will be extremely challenging to succeed in limiting temperature increase to
2°C by 2020 and thus, achieving the global goal agreed in Cancun, unless
innovative alternatives are explored. “These estimates are another wake-up
call”, highlighted IEA chief officials.

From a different angle the report,
The State and Trends of the Carbon Market 2011, produced by the World Bank,
highlights the decline of the carbon market over 2010 both in terms of carbon
trading transactions and market value. According to the report, “2010 proved to
be the hottest year on record, while global emission levels continued to rise
relentlessly”. Following the latter opposite trends between carbon market growth
and emissions levels, the authors of the report predict that in their efforts to
shift to lower carbon development paths, “other national and local low-carbon
initiatives will pick up in both developed and developing economies ... to
overcome regulatory uncertainty and signal that, one way or another, solutions
that address the climate challenge will emerge”. Nevertheless, the report
underlines the “risk of losing billions of lower cost private investment and new
technology solutions in developing countries” offered via carbon market tools.

ITU, closely following these last technical assessments, invites the global
community to look at the ICT sector as a solution provider to meet the goals
agreed in Cancun. Information and communication technologies (ICTs), such as
satellites, mobile phones or the Internet, can enable countries to take up
transformative solutions to deploy innovative, energy efficient and low-carbon
technologies that ensure a better, “greener” and sustainable future. The ICT
sector is already committed to improve its own environmental impact, as well as
to help improve the carbon footprint of other sectors.

Learn more about ITU’s work in this area by joining us at the side event “Linking
ICTs with the Cancun Agreements” to be held on 7 June 2011 in Bonn, Germany,
during the forthcoming UN Climate Change Talks.

The event will discuss inter alia how ICTs can help adapt and mitigate
climate change and what existing ICTs are affordable for developing countries.
The event will also provide an opportunity to exchange views on how ICTs can
help to implement the Cancun Agreements and will look at the new technologies
to promote green ICTs and innovation.

In a recent article by Wolfgang Kleinwachter on the forthcoming 41st ICANN meeting in Singapore, he raises the hotly debated question:
"Will the booming Lion-City on the South-Asian Peninsula see a Shakespeare drama in June 2011, a shoot out between the ICANN Board and the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) to end the nearly 15 years of discussion on the introduction of more generic Top Level Domains (TLDs) into the legacy root of the Internet?"

read the full article at http://news.dot-nxt.com/2011/05/18/high-noon-in-singapore

Tom Jowitt reported in eWeek Europe that ahead of the G8 economic summit in France later this week, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has addressed a conference of tech leaders urging them to work with governments over internet regulations.

read the full article here: http://www.eweekeurope.co.uk/news/french-internet-regulation-needed-president-sarkozy-tells-tech-bosses-30088

ITU’s relationship with IMPACT continues to gain momentum, with over 130 UN Member States now part of the ITU-IMPACT coalition.

ITU-IMPACT is the first cooperative global venture to make available cybersecurity expertise and resources to enable Member States to detect, analyze and respond effectively to cyberthreats. Of particular benefit to developing countries and smaller states without the capacity and resources to develop their own sophisticated cyber response centres, the coalition also benefits technically advanced nations by providing them with a continuous global snapshot of potential and real online threats.

In line with ITU's long tradition of public-private partnership ITU has signed an MoU with Symantec

Under the terms of the agreement, Symantec will provide ITU with expert intelligence reports on current and future trends in ICT security, to be shared among all ITU Member States. This will facilitate awareness raising and knowledge transfer, complementing the work of ITU and strengthening its effectiveness as a global forum for governments and the private sector to build confidence and security in the use of ICTs.

UN agencies team up to make the online world safer: MoU signed between ITU and UNODC at WSIS Forum 2011

A Memorandum of Understanding signed between ITU and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) at this year’s WSIS Forum event in Geneva will see the two organizations collaborate in assisting UN Member States to mitigate the risks posed by cybercrime.

The MoU will enable ITU and UNODC to work together to make available the necessary expertise and resources to establish legal measures and legislative frameworks at the national level, for the benefit of countries worldwide. It is the first time that two organizations within the UN system have formally agreed to cooperate on a global basis on cybersecurity.

“This new alliance with UNODC is a major milestone in implementing a coordinated global approach to an increasingly serious global problem. Together, our two agencies will generate powerful synergies that will help all countries fight the scourge of cybercrime and create a safer online environment for all,” said ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré.

ITU, UNEP, WMO and the Basel Convention will organize on 18 May
2011 a full program of activities during WSIS Forum 2011 related
with the role of ICTs in the promotion of sustainable
development and the preservation of the environment.

Organized around the theme “Go smart, move green”, the “e-Environment
day at WSIS Forum 2011” will include the following sessions:

16:30 - 18:00. From WSIS to Rio+20: The role of ICTs in
sustainable development and the green economy transition

Key speakers will include representatives from ITU, GSMA, France
Telecom, Microsoft, Telecom Italia, WMO or the Basel Convention,
among others

Take part in the event and join us
onsite from ILO conference center or via the webcast.
Participation will be open to all stakeholders, including
governments, private sector, civil society, academia, as well as
international and regional institutions.

The ITU visitors’ centre to be opened to the public this autumn has been given a name — ICT Discovery — thanks to a suggestion by 12-year-old Nethmi Karunajeewa. As the winner of a contest to name the new facility, on 17 May 2011 she was awarded the prize of an iPad2 by ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré. The contest was open to all ITU staff and their families. Nethmi’s mother, Nayani Karunajeewa, is a radiocommunication engineer at ITU.

Nethmi says her favourite subjects at school are English and drama, and her dream is to become a writer or a teacher. “I thought of the idea ICT Discovery because I like playing with words when I write poems, and I thought that this name was suitable because the ITU visitors’ centre would be a place where people could discover the wonders of information and communication technology,” Nethmi explained. “I feel really proud to have my idea chosen for something so important,” she added.

The new centre will illustrate the history of ICT and show how current and emerging technologies influence our lives. Focusing on the future, ICT Discovery will also highlight ITU’s important contributions and its commitment to connect the world. For more, see: http://www.itu.int/ict-e/index.html

In the latest phase of its two year old Child Online Protection Initiative the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is to look at the possibility of developing international telecommunications standards whose widespread application would help protect children from online threats.

The ITU's Child Online Protection (COP) initiative was launched in November 2008 as "a multi-stakeholder effort to bring together partners from all sectors of the global community to ensure a safe online experience for children everywhere."

In this latest development the ITU's Telecommunication Standardization Advisory Group (TSAG) has asked the ITU's security standardization study group, Study Group 17 (SG17), to investigate child protection in the online world.

The group will look at the possibility of developing interoperable standards to protect children online. The aim would be to develop a widely shared approach that could be promoted across the whole industry. The ITU has not given a timeframe for any concrete outcomes from SG17.

SG17 will evaluate what options and possibilities exist for real global coordinated and consistent action to protect children online, for example watch and warning and incident management regimes that would facilitate the gathering of threat information and its sharing among different players.

SG17 will also try to identify commonalities that span the different industry sectors (broadcasters, Internet, mobile) with the aim of developing codes of conduct to help ITU member states collaborate more effectively with the private sector/industry.

It will try to establish cooperative arrangements between government and the private sector/industry for sharing information and developing specific capabilities aimed at mitigating the risks and extending the potential of ICT usage by children.

The ITU lists the key objectives of its Child Online Protection initiative as being to: "identify risks and vulnerabilities to children in cyberspace; create awareness; develop practical tools to help minimize risk; share knowledge and experience."

ITU highlighted the need for countries to develop coordinated national e-Health plans which leverage the power of ICTs, at the second and final meeting of the Commission on Information and Accountability for Women’s and Children’s Health, which took place in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania on May 1-2.

ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré served as co-Vice Chair of the Commission alongside Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organisation. The meeting approved 10 recommendations which, together, constitute a new framework for accountability and tracking of resources and results in the health sector.

The goal of the Commission is to improve transparency, ensure consistency in reporting and more effectively track resources spent on reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health, to accelerate progress towards Millennium Development Goals 4, 5 and 1c.

ITU is currently working alongside WHO to develop a modular e-Health toolkit that will help countries develop and implement scalable and sustainable programmes for integrating ICTs into national health strategies.

Even relatively simple ICTs like ordinary cellphones can play a transformative role in national health systems, facilitating data gathering, storage, sharing and analysis. In addition, new apps, such as a system to perform automatic remote diagnosis of malaria using a simple in-phone camera, could serve as powerful catalysts in extending access to diagnosis and treatment to people in isolated communities.

“With mobile connectivity now widespread in even the world’s poorest countries, ICTs offer a unique and powerful opportunity to bridge the health development gap,” said ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré. “In addition to facilitating data analysis, platforms like the Internet and social media can also be used as tools to create safe and empowering spaces for women, where they can obtain accurate, up-to-the-minute health information in a confidential, multilingual environment.”

The Commission is a key element of the UN Global Strategy for Women's and Children’s Health, which aims to save the lives of 16 million women and children under five years of age by 2015.

Already, ITU is an active user of social media, with accounts on Twitter, Flickr and YouTube. Now it has expanded its online presence even further with the launch of a public ITU page on Facebook.

As part of the Facebook community, ITU will post its latest news, information on events, photos, videos and feature stories. Most importantly, the public page is another way for ITU to interact directly with users, who will be able to make comments, give their feedback and share ideas.

As of January 2011, Facebook reportedly had more than 600 million active users around the globe. It will therefore be a powerful way for ITU to get its message across and listen to responses from every continent as it works on its mission of “connecting the world”.

The Information Society provides great opportunities to address some of the
key global challenges related with the promotion of sustainable development and
the preservation of the environment. But what exactly is the role of
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in tackling climate change and
how can they move forward the sustainable development agenda?

These questions have been addressed since 2003 in the multi-stakeholder
process of the World Summit of Information Society (WSIS), in particular through
the implementation of action line C7 - ICT applications, e-environment of the
WSIS Geneva Plan of Action, which establishes the foundations for an Information
Society for all.

Action line C7 focuses on environmental issues such as climate monitoring,
adaptation to climate change, making better use of natural resources, recycling
and disposing of end-of-life ICT equipment in an environmentally sound manner,
and reduction of the carbon footprint of multiple sectors, including the ICT
industry. These and other issues will be discussed during the “E-environment
day at WSIS Forum 2011”, to be held in Geneva (Switzerland) on
Wednesday 18 May 2011 under the theme “Go Smart, move Green”.

The event, organized by ITU together with the Basel Convention, UNEP and WMO,
will also review the progress made so far in the implementation of this action
line. Get engaged in the event and take part in workshops, interactive
discussions, publication releases and networking sessions. Participation will be
open to all stakeholders, including governments, private sector, civil society,
academia, as well as international and regional institutions.

Join the Green ICT community by taking part in this event
either on-site or remotely, presenting your recent publications during the
event, or displaying the most recent activities from your organization at the
e-environment exhibition stand.

New ITU report highlights the role of regulators addressing climate change through green ICTs

ITU has released the 11th edition of its flagship ICT regulatory report
Trends in Telecommunication Reform which takes an in-depth look at one of the
most significant social trends of the past decade: the increasingly pervasive
presence of ICTs in virtually every facet of modern life. The report highlights
the importance of effective regulations in order to increase the benefits that
ICTs can introduce in other sectors, as well as their positive contribution to
economic growth. The report further highlights the changing/expanding role of
regulators getting engaged in non-traditional areas of regulatory intervention
such as climate change.

Chapter 7 of the report is dedicated to showcasing one of the above co-benefits:
the potential of ICTs to address the causes and effects of climate change. Like
every other industry, ICTs contribute to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However,
they are also uniquely positioned to enable the reduction of emissions through
‘smart’ energy management systems. The report recognizes the fact that no
discussion of climate change is complete without close examination of the role
of ICTs in creating, managing, and resolving the issue. Mr Brahima Sanou,
Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau, states: “Because ICTs
touch all aspects of society, when setting sound policies and regulation the
link between ICTs and major social issues like climate change, economic growth
and digital lifestyles has to be taken into account”.

Aspects highlighted in this section of the report include whether ICT regulators,
particularly those in charge of regulating telecommunications service providers
(TSPs), should have a more active role in promoting environmental protection and
consider climate change issues when defining new regulations. The chapter also
considers sector-specific regulatory interventions aimed at cutting GHG
emissions from TSPs as well as facilitating the ability of TSPs to reduce
emissions from other industry sectors.

Microsoft spends $7.5 million on IP addresses: It’s official, IP addresses are now more expensive than domain names.

By Kevin Murphy, March 24, 2011, 13:22:24 (UTC), Domain Tech.
Nortel Networks, the bankrupt networking hardware vendor, has sold 666,624 IPv4 addresses to Microsoft for $7.5 million, according to Delaware bankruptcy court documents (pdf). That’s $11.25 per address, more than you’d expect to pay for a .com domain name.
According to the article, the total value of the entire IPv4 address space, if the price Microsoft is willing to pay is a good guide, is approximately $48.3 billion.

Read more at http://domainincite.com/microsoft-spends-7-5-million-on-ip-addresses/

ITU'S High-level Debate held to commemorate 100 years of International Women's Day tackled the issue of declining female participation in the information and communication technology industry.

It's a little-known fact that women were the original programmers of ENIAC, the US government's first ever computer. But while teenage girls now use computers and the Internet at rates similar to boys, they are five times less likely to consider a technology-related career.

It wasn't always so. In the US in the 1980s, for example, young women were earning 37% of computer science degrees; today, that number has fallen to around 20%.That lack of trained female professionals in turn means that in OECD countries, women now account for under 20% of ICT specialists in OECD countries. It also means that most developed countries are forecasting an alarming shortfall in the number of skilled staff to fill upcoming jobs in the ICT sector. The European Union calculates that in 10 years' time there will be a lack of some 300,000 people to fill ICT jobs in the region; globally, the shortfall is closer to 1.2 million.

With computer and information systems managers consistently ranked among the top 20 best-paying jobs – on a par with surgeons, orthodontists, airline pilots and lawyers – why are young women turning their backs on technology?

ITU's High-level Panel of experts from government, the ICT industry, the education sector and the media agreed that major problems include a poor perception of the industry among girls, and a lack of inspiring role models.

Finnish Communications Minister Suvi Lindén spoke of a culture of negativity around science and maths that is affecting girls as young as primary level. Educator Inal Uygur of the International School of Geneva noted that teachers unwittingly or even deliberately put girls off technology as a career, often with a misplaced sense that they are acting in the girl's best interests. Professor Anastasia Ailamaki, who leads the DIAS Lab at the prestigious Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, observed that male teachers' envy of young girls' talents can also sometimes play an insidious role.

Industry representatives Alethea Lodge-Clark of Microsoft and Victor Agnellini of Alcatel-Lucent affirmed that encouraging more girls into technology careers was important to the ongoing growth of the ICT industry, particularly in Europe and the US. Both highlighted their own companies' initiatives to redress the problem, such as the Digigirlz programme managed globally by Microsoft, and female-oriented initiatives managed by the Alcatel-Lucent Foundation in countries around the world. Aurora Velez, Chief Producer of the Learning World series at Euronews, pointed to some of the innovative approaches her team has uncovered around the world, and hosted the screening of two Learning World stories created for this year's International Women's Day, both focused on encouraging girls to think about careers in technology.

Dr Speranza Ndege, Director of the Institute of Open, Distance and e-Learning at Kenya's Kenyatta University, told of the strong resistance she met from male colleagues when she crossed over from the traditional female academic domain of social sciences to ICTs. ITU's own Gitanjali Sah, who works as an ICT analyst focused on development issues, brought a regional perspective, noting that ICT training for girls was very popular in much of the Asia region, because of its perceived prestige.

And Serbian Minister Jasna Matiã, who has earned an international reputation as a passionate champion of technology education for women, proposed a concrete way forward with the creation of a Girls in ICT Day, to be held on the fourth Thursday in April every year, where governments, private industry and the education sector will be encouraged to team up to promote technology as an attractive career choice for female students.

The event was attended by around 100 representatives from UN agencies, national missions, the ICT industry, the education sector and the general public.

To commemorate 100 years of International Women’s Day, ITU is organizing a High-level Panel Debate on 10 March 2011 around the theme of female participation in the information and communication technology industry.

What’s behind the sharp downwards trend in young women opting to study information and communication technology? ICT qualifications offer good job prospects and higher-than-average remuneration. Yet in the US, for example, the proportion of girls studying ICT courses has dropped from a mid-‘80s high of 37% to just 29% today – and falling.

Many European economies are now predicting a crisis in the number of trained IT professionals within the next 10-15 years. What is putting girls off technology? And why are some countries – particularly in the Asian region – succeeding in attracting female IT students? What are they doing differently – and getting right?

Entitled ‘Goodbye to the IT girl: Why are young women desertingtechnology?’ the debate will look at how ICTs are taught in schools and universities, how girls perceive careers in technology – and what is informing their life choices. What are the cultural and economic barriers – and how might we encourage more girls into the technology field?

See www.itu.int/en/womensday/Pages/default.aspx for full details of panelists and timings.

This event is open to representatives from UN agencies, national missions, the ICT industry, the education sector and the general public. RSVP by email to pressreg@itu.int by 16:00 on 8 March is essential to attend this event.

The development of interoperable standards and related recommendations to protect children online. The aim would be to develop a widely shared approach which could be promoted across the whole industry.

Evaluating what options and possibilities exist for real global coordinated and consistent action to protect children online. Attention should be given to the elaboration of those capabilities (e.g. watch and warning and incident management) that would facilitate the gathering of threats and information sharing among different players.

Identifying the commonalities that span the different industry sectors (broadcasters, Internet, mobile) with the purpose of developing Codes of Conduct, or code of practices to help ITU Member States collaborate more effectively with the private sector/industry.

Establish cooperative arrangements between government and the private sector/industry for sharing information and developing specific capabilities aimed at mitigating the risks and extending the potential of ICT usage by children.

ITU’s Child Online Protection (COP) initiative was launched in November 2008 as a multi-stakeholder effort to bring together partners from all sectors of the global community to ensure a safe online experience for children everywhere.

SG17 is expected to play a major role in technical aspects on COP, given that security, cybersecurity and identity management are already now being recognized as key fields of potential interest. Several SG17 work items (in ITU parlance Questions) are relevant, and experts from membership are encouraged to contribute.

ITU’s recent announcement on an OAM standard for MPLS in transport networks has seen considerable interest, but not always for the right reasons with claims from the Internet Society that it will jeopardize the Internet.
Experts cast doubt on ISOC’s statement: “… ongoing evolution along this path will jeopardize the … Internet”.
They point to the fact that several interoperability tests have been successfully performed with no reported problems. In addition the solution being proposed by ITU conforms to the MPLS-TP architecture as defined by the IETF. When network equipment uses different protocols, interoperability of the functioning of that protocol, in this case OAM, may well be affected. However, since packets for different protocols are identified by pre-assigned different codepoints, protocols running behind these different codepoints will not interfere with each other. This means that the core functionality – in this case Internet traffic – will not be affected. Therefore various protocols can coexist without causing any confusion in the network.

Geneva, 28 February 2011 – In a big step towards leveraging existing MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching) deployment in transport networks, ITU has agreed first stage approval of a key new standard. The ITU-T standard will give network operators the tools necessary to manage large scale deployments of MPLS-based networks. Network operators will now have a choice of OAM (operations, administration and maintenance) tools to best meet their specific transport network requirements. These OAM tools in the hands of network operators will, in particular, allow quick detection of defects and fault isolation.

The full article is available at: http://www.itu.int/net/pressoffice/press_releases/2011/03.aspx

2010 was an eventful year of major events and activities for ITU’s climate change program. From the 5th ITU symposium on ICTs, the environment and climate change to ITU´s participation at the 2010 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP16), ITU made significant progress during 2010 in promoting the use of ICTs to address climate change.

Did you miss any of our activities? Relive them today and access our latest publications, events and recommendations in the new section “Highlights from 2010”, available at the ITU Climate Change page (www.itu.int/climate).

ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré was one of the international leaders to lend his support to the launch of the new Global Network of Women ICT Decision Makers (podcast), which took place at UN headquarters in New York in conjunction with the 55th session of the Commission on the Status of Women.

The initiative of Serbia’s Minister of Communications and Information Society, Ms Jasna Matiæ, the network aims to provide support, global information exchange and mentorship for high-placed women in the information and communications (ICT) industry.

Launched by Minister Matiæ and Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director of UN Women, the idea for the network emerged during ITU’s Plenipotentiary Conference in Guadalajara, Mexico, last October. It was subsequently included in Resolution 70 of that conference, garnering overwhelming support from PP-10 delegates.

In a video message to support the launch, Dr Touré said ITU was committed to promoting ICTs as tools to empower women and girls, as well as to encouraging more girls and women into the industry.

“The ICT industry offers many incentives to those looking for abundant career opportunities, engaging, cutting edge work, and substantial remuneration,” Dr Touré said. “In the world today, there are about 850 million young women aged under 24. With the ICT sector now serving as the world’s single biggest growth engine for jobs, we’re going to need their skills, their enthusiasm, and their fresh ideas.”

The ITU Secretary-General went on to express his hope that one of the major achievements of the new Global Network of Women ICT Decision Makers will be to showcase the many talented women working in the ICT field, and to promote these women as inspiring role-models for a new generation of female ICT leaders.

Other high-level leaders supporting the launch included the Ministers of Communication of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Finland, and Qatar, the Secretary-General of the Arab ICT Association, and dignitaries from Senegal and Sweden.

The Cybersecurity and Internet Freedom Act, introduced by in the US Senete would explicitly deny the president or other U.S. officials "authority to shut down the Internet.
Full article available on PCWorld at
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/220092/us_bill_would_prohibit_internet_kill_switch.html

Speaking at Safer Internet Day (at Child Focus, Safer Internet Centre, Belgium), European Commission Vice-President Kroes raised the question of balancing the unquestionable benefits offered by the Internet with the need to keep children safe online. In keeping with the aims of Safer Internet Day, ECDL Foundation’s new IT Security certification focuses on providing the right competences for safe surfing and computer usage.

European children are using the Internet on a daily basis for longer periods, and with greater frequency – not just for surfing the Web, but for accessing schoolwork assignments, developing their personal interests, and for actually contributing to the Web’s diversity by uploading video content, social networking etc.
The EU has taken certain actions, such as investing €55 million into awareness-raising projects aimed at making the Internet safer for children. Despite this investment, a recent survey conducted by the London School of Economics has shown that nearly half of the participating children did not know how to change the privacy settings of their social networking sites, and in another complementary EU-wide survey, only 14% of parents surveyed said that they had set up parental web-filtering software to protect their children.

At a keynote speech delivered at the RSA Security Conference, Scott Charney--Microsoft (MSFT) corporate vice president for Trustworthy Computing--reiterated a vision for the future of Internet security. Charney painted a picture of a collaborative approach to Internet and PC security modeled after the processes used to respond to global health epidemics.

Microsoft describes why the timing seems to be right for driving this vision forward, citing the increased use of mobile devices and cloud computing, the persistence of botnet threats, increased public awareness of online crimes, and growing public pressure for improved government cyber security policies. These factors combine to create a unique opportunity.

An operation involving cross-border collaboration and supported by Europol has dismantled an international organized crime group based in Romania. The gang had been carrying out payment card fraud in several EU countries including Poland, Romania, Sweden and the UK.

Romanian law enforcement authorities, working in cooperation with the Europol, the European Law Enforcement Agency, arrested five members of the criminal gang after months of surveillance. The gang’s activities had involved fraudulently withdrawing cash from ATM machines with illegally skimmed and counterfeit payment cards. The card holders in countries including Poland, Romania, Sweden and the UK are said to have suffered substantial losses according to a press release issued by Europol on Wednesday.

A European Parliament decision on Monday to remove child pornography images at the source rather than promote Web blocking has been hailed as a success by Internet rights activists.

Members of the Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee ruled that complete removal "at source" must be the main aim in tackling child pornography online and that blocking access to websites is acceptable only in exceptional circumstances -- when the host server in a non-E.U. country refuses to cooperate or when procedures take too long.

The original Commission proposal would have made blocking of child porn websites mandatory for all E.U. member states, prompting concern among Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) who tend to support Internet freedom.

"The new generation of MEPs has shown it understands the Internet and has courageously rejected populist but ineffective and cosmetic measures in favor of measures aimed at real child protection," said Joe McNamee, of the European digital rights movement EDRi. "This is a huge and implausible success for an army of activists campaigning to protect the democratic, societal and economic value of the Internet," he added.

POLICE are considering holding internet safety workshops in schools across Bolton. Officers confirmed they are looking into the possibility of holding the sessions with another organisation in a bid to keep youngsters safe while they surf the internet.

Insp Shane O’Neill, from GMP’s Bolton Division, said: “We have a well established Safer Schools Partnership and we work closely with the schools on issues such as internet safety, offering guidance and support when needed.”

You won’t find Internet crimes such as cyberbullying and sexting listed as criminal offenses in the FBI’s uniform crime report, but such crimes are rampant and all too often aimed at children.

Similar to the way the proliferation of drugs propelled police departments and schools across the nation to partner in the 1980s and teach Drug Abuse Resistance Education or DARE programs to students, DARE 2B Cybersafe is a new crime-fighting tool allowing officers to interact with children and teens online and discuss issues such as drugs, alcohol and cyberbullying.

The claims that internet IP addresses are running out worldwide are not true, and resources allocated to some regional internet registries are far from exhausted, said Mr. Zhao Houlin, Deputy Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in a recent interview with Xinhua.
The in-use IP addresses still have potentials that can be tapped, not to mention that a great number of allocated IP addresses are currently not in use.
Read the full article on XinhuaNet at
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/business/2011-02/14/c_13730415.htm

Insecure Web apps pose a serious security risk for organizations, and according to a new survey released today, website attacks are among the biggest concerns for companies.

The Ponemon Institute survey, commissioned by security vendors Barracuda Networks Inc. and Cenzic Inc., polled 637 IT and IT security practitioners on their views of Web application security. While 74% said Web application security is equal or more critical to other security issues, only 36% said their organization has adequate governance and policies over the use of insecure Web applications by end users across the enterprise.

As February 8th marks Safer Internet Day, the statistical office of the European Union (EU) has published new figures which reveal the extent to which businesses can and do benefit from security solutions when outsourcing IT departments.

The Eurostat study found that in 2010 approximately 84 per cent of web users were protected by security software, suggesting that there are still a large number of individuals and companies that could benefit from greater internet security.

On the occasion of Safer Internet Day 2011, the European Commission today announced that it will step up talks with ICT industry and children's organisations to encourage the design of safer products to help keep children safe online.

Moreover, the Commission will shortly review the 2006 Recommendation on minors and how to protect them in audiovisual media and Internet and on the 2008 Communication on the protection of youngsters from harmful content in video games.

Children are going online from a younger age and not just from computers, but also games consoles and mobile phones. More than 82 % of 15-16 year olds in Europe have a social networking profile, as well as 26 % of 9-10 year olds. Safer Internet Day is being marked today in more than 65 countries around the world under the slogan "Internet is more than a game, it's your life!".

This is supported by the EU's Safer Internet Programme, which helps parents and their children to be safe online. Children's safety online is an important part of the Digital Agenda for Europe (see IP/10/581, MEMO/10/199 and MEMO/10/200).

Miscreants have begun selling a cut-price point and click Facebook rogue application generation tool, designed for script kiddies too clueless to code their own malicious application.

The rogue Facebook app creation tool kit is available is available at just $25, net security firm Websense reports.

The toolkit offers a means to direct surfers towards survey scams, spread malware or act as a tool in furtherance of click-fraud scams, all by following a simple set of instructions. Bogus applications generated via the tool, called Tinie Facebook Viral Application, would offer lures such as the supposed opportunity to check on who has been viewing a Facebook profile.

75% of teenagers have been contacted by a stranger via the internet, and as many as 37% of these have responded to them out of curiosity.

Many children between the ages of 14 and 18 are engaging in risky behaviour online – and while parents say they are aware of the dangers, many are doing nothing to protect their children, according to the results of a recent survey.

The MSN survey, run by Microsoft as part of Safer Internet Day on 8 February, suggests that nearly half (44%) of children have lied about their age when online; over a third (37%) of those who had been contacted by a stranger (75%) responded; and only 4% told someone older that they trusted, such as a parent or teacher.

The Statistical Office of the European Communities, Eurostat, has revealed that almost one third (31%) of EU people who used the internet last year (from the 27 EU member states) caught a virus on their computer that resulted in the loss of information or time. That's despite 84% of surfers using security software (e.g. anti-virus) for protection, which rises to 88% in the UK.

Some 14% of individuals in the EU27 who used the internet in the last year, and live in a household with children, had parental control or web filtering software installed. This increases to 21% in the UK. Just 5% (4% in the UK) experienced children accessing inappropriate websites or connecting with potentially dangerous persons while using a home computer.

Young People are being encouraged to think about their “digital lives” today – and to consider their online identity.

To mark Safer Internet Day 2011, an awareness campaign has been launched to spread understanding about the opportunities and risks of sharing information online – something children are doing at increasingly early age.

In the UK, a leading child protection agency has tackled the darker side of a person’s “digital identity” by making a short filmed aiming to alert young people and their parents about the dangers of “sexting”.

Safer Internet Day 8 February 2011--It's more than a game, it's your life

Safer Internet Day is organised by Insafe each year in February to promote safer and more responsible use of online technology and mobile phones, especially amongst children and young people across the world.Safer Internet Day is organised by Insafe each year in February to promote safer and more responsible use of online technology and mobile phones, especially amongst children and young people across the world.

The topic for 2011 is "our virtual lives" around the slogan " It's more than a game, it's your life".

In 2010 Safer Internet Day was celebrated through over 500 events in 65 countries all over the world.

In an interview with the World Trademark Review, ICANN’s chair Peter Dengate Thrush spoke about the ICANN board’s upcoming meeting in Brussels with its Government Advisory Committee (GAC). The GAC is hoping to resolve its concerns over, among other things, proposed trademark protection mechanisms for new gTLDs. But Dengate Thrush did not describe it as a negotiation.
“For some people, even ordering dinner is a negotiation. But technically speaking, the GAC is going to give us advice, we’ll listen to it, and we’re either going to accept it or not and explain why.”
Read the full interview on the WTR site at
http://www.worldtrademarkreview.com/daily/detail.aspx?g=62470E83-F9B8-4921-9823-72D0FF149415

In a presentation made to attendees of the McCarthy Institute Symposium, Peter Dengate Thrush, ICANN Chair, announced that the Final New generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) Applicant Guidebook would be completed after the ICANN Meeting in Amman, Jordan which is scheduled for June 19 - 24, 2011.

Full article available on CircleID at
http://www.circleid.com/posts/20110203_new_gtld_program_to_be_finalized_after_june_icann_meeting/

BBC Children's is throwing its weight behind Safer Internet Day on Tuesday 8 February by hosting a range of initiatives across CBeebies and CBBC.

CBBC will air three interactive webisodes of its hit show Tracy Beaker Returns. Covering online relationships, cyberbullying and illegal downloads the webisodes aim to promote online media best practice and media literacy. Whilst CBeebies will feature a blog, written by Dr Tanya Byron, on how to keep young children safe online and advising parents how they can prepare their children to become safe independent internet users as they grow older.

Saferpedia.eu is an online encyclopedia with terms about Internet safety addressed to children, teens, teachers and parents all over the world.
Saferpedia.eu was created by Positive Media Romania, one of the Safer Internet RO Consortium members and is part of a bigger project aiming to keep children safe on the Internet, supported by the Insafe Network which has Safer Internet centers all over the Europe.

The encyclopedia wants to be a useful tool for children, teens, parents and teachers. Here they can find terms, definitions and resources about internet safety, other terms referring to Internet, technical terms from IT and terms referring to Internet security.

Knowing where your kids are can be a full time job. Knowing where they are online—which websites they’re visiting and who they’re talking to—is even harder, but is no less important. The Better Business Bureau Children’s Advertising Review Unit encourages parents to teach their kids and tweens about unsafe online situations and recommends looking out for seven stop signs.

According to a study by the Neilsen Norman Group, kids as young as nine years old are becoming just as capable—if not more so—than their parents at navigating the Internet. While young kids may be computer whizzes, they aren’t necessarily as smart as their parents when it comes to identifying online threats, including predators and fraud.

ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré took part in a new high-level UN Commission charged with tracking tangible improvements in women's and children' health, which held its first meeting in Geneva on January 26.

One of the key pillars of UN Secretary-General Mr Ban Ki-moon's new Global Strategy for Women's and Children's health, the Commission on Information and Accountability for Women's and Children's Health represents an important step forwards in improving accountability in health care projects worldwide.

The Commission is Co-Chaired by Canadian Prime Minister Mr Stephen Harper and Tanzanian President Mr Jakaya Kikwete, with Dr Touré and WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan serving as co-Vice Chairs. Its outcome, delivered at the second and final meeting in May 2011, will serve as an important stepping stone towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals.

ITU is contributing its expertise in the field of information and communication technologies (ICTs), which can serve as powerful tools in advancing information exchange and improving healthcare. "Technologies already at our disposal, such as ordinary mobile phones, can play an increasingly vital role in health care, as vehicles both for data collection and analysis, and for delivery of basic health services to communities," said Dr Touré.

Commissioners comprise 26 experts from developed and developing countries in the fields of academia, civil society and the private sector.

The survey, “Youth 2.0 – 10 to 18-year-olds in the digital world,” found that youths use the internet more for learning that recreation. But it also reached some worrying conclusions, including that German adolescents rate using the internet and having their own computer more important than participating in sports.

The results had important implications for society, said Bitkom president August-Wilhelm Scheer, including the need for better child protection.

“Children and youths should be able to use the full potential of the internet. That’s why we need the proper skills and more protection,” he said.

Adults do it; teens do it; kids do it, too.
Which brings up the question: How young is too young to be on Facebook and other social networking sites?

The magic number is 13, says Amanda Lenhart with the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project. That's the minimum age requirement, in theory, for young people to sign up on most of the social networking sites.
As it turns out, however, controlling children's online activities or even knowing when they're mature enough to manage their own accounts is more complicated than it sounds.

A mobile phone application which claims to identify adults posing as children is to be released.

The team behind Child Defence says the app can analyse language to generate an age profile, identifying potential paedophiles. Isis Forensics developed the tool after parental concerns over children accessing sites on their mobiles. But child protection experts warned against such technology lulling people into thinking they are safe.

Child Defence project leader James Walkerdine, based at Lancaster University, said: "This software improves children's chances of working out that something isn't right. "Parents told us they would much prefer to see software solutions that empowered and educated their children to help them protect themselves."

There’s a whole new playground where students can be bullied and sexually harassed — the Internet.Local parents are saying they want to stay one step ahead of the game so they can keep an eye on whom their children are meeting and how children are treating each other online.

“I think as our kids become of age, as parents, we can’t keep our heads in the sand and we have to be one step ahead,” said Joan Abington, of Libertyville.

Present-day technical and legal methods of preventing child pornography offences and online grooming are not sufficiently effective and do not meet their purpose. A thesis from the University of othenburg, Sweden, shows that new approaches are needed to improve online protection for our children.

Marie Eneman of the Department of Applied Information Technology has studied in her thesis how information technology is used for child pornography and grooming, that is to say adults making contact with minors for sexual purposes, and the technical and legal controls that exist to protect children.

It's good to competeDuring the first decade of the 21st century, new information and communication technologies (ICTs) came within reach of most of the world’s people for the first time in human history – a success story facilitated by the introduction of competition and the creation of independent regulators across the globe...

The privatization (mostly) of incumbent operatorsTwenty years ago, in 1991, just 37 countries’ main fixed-line operators were privatized. Today, 126 countries’ incumbent operators are partly or fully in the hands of private sector owners...

Broadband becomes a national policy priorityBy 2010, some 82 countries around the world – from Afghanistan to the United States, Australia to Malawi, and Chile to Slovenia – had adopted or planned to adopt a national broadband strategy...

A Parents’ Guide to Facebook was designed to help you understand what Facebook is and how to use it safely. With it, you will be better informed and able to communicate with young Facebook users in your life more effectively. That’s important because 1) if something goes wrong, we want our children to come to us and 2) as the Internet becomes increasingly social and mobile, a parent’s guidance and support are ever more key to young people’s well-being in social media and technology.

It has been revealed in a recent report that UK parents are taking the most precautions when it comes to their kids getting online to surf the Internet.

The increasing uptake of broadband services in the UK has resulted in a sharp increase in the number of kids that have access to the internet. This can be very beneficial for kids, as it gives them access to valuable tools and resources for educational purposes as well as the ability to socialise more effectively, keep in touch with friends and family, and enjoy entertainment at home.

Parents are starting to think about the need to filter access to the Internet on phones and other wireless devices. A few companies offer apps with 'kid-safe' browsers.Every day, Teresa DiFalco's children clamor for her iPhone.

The kids, ages 9 and 11, use the smart phone and DiFalco's iPod Touch to play such games as Angry Birds and Zombie Farm. Around the nation, other kids are doing the same, either on their own or on their parents' mobile devices, such as smart phones, iPads and other tablets.

More than 150 seventh-graders at Taft High School on Chicago's Northwest Side were given a lecture on Internet safety and online crimes put on by the Cook County Sheriff's Youth Services Department on Wednesday.

The presentation was intended to be a "scared straight" talk to warn middle school students about the dangers of cyberbullying, "sexting" and online predators, and also educate them about social-networking safety.

ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré will shortly be participating in the first meeting of a new high-level commission focused on improving global outcomes in women’s and children’s health.

Lead by WHO, and co-Chaired by President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania and Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada, the Commission on Information and Accountability for Women's and Children's Health is charged with creating a system to track whether donations are made on time, resources are spent wisely and transparently, and women's and children's health actually improves. It has the support of UN Secretary-General Mr Ban Ki-moon, and will be co-Vice Chaired by Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General of WHO, and Dr Touré.

The Commission holds its first meeting on Wednesday January 26 at WHO headquarters in Geneva. Its 26 Commissioners include experts from around the world in the field of public health and international development. It will make concrete recommendations the best and fastest way to improve accountability by May 2011.

Dr Touré will contribute his expertise in the field of ICTs to advise on new strategies that use technologies like mobile phones as key tools for health care and data collection.

Parents in the Beverley area are being invited to an internet safety workshop to find out what they can do to safeguard their children. The free event will look at how the internet is used differently by children and adults and will explore how young people use social networking websites, instant messaging, chat rooms and download music.

Those attending the course will be advised about the potential risks and what can be done to address them.

Parents in the EU are not keeping an eye on their children's online activities, according to a new survey which found that just a quarter of parents in the bloc keep track of cyber bullying and sexual grooming of their children on the Internet.

A survey that interviewed both parents and their offspring across the EU found that children's online access of pornography, sexual targeting by strangers and offline meetings with strangers met on the Web went largely unnoticed by their parents.

BSI Helps Protect Children Online With the Award of the First Kitemark Certification

BSI has awarded the first Child Safety Online Kitemark to help parents protect their children from inappropriate content on the internet.

Tim Loughton, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families, presented the first child safety online Kitemark to Netintelligence , the cloud based security service from managed hosting services company iomart Group, during his keynote speech in London today at the BETT Show, the educational technology exhibition.

Designed to provide parents with the confidence that harmful internet content will not be seen by children, the Kitemark requires internet filtering software to be easy to install, easy to use and effective in blocking inappropriate online content such as pornography, violence and racism.

UK parents are the strictest in Europe when it come to their children's Internet use, with more than half installing filtering software. But even for the children protected, over 20 per cent of harmful content will make it through, according to two new reports released by European Commissioners.

The authors of the first report, Benchmarking of parental control tools for the online protection of children, tested 31 sets of tools for PCs, games consoles and mobile phones, designed to monitor usage as well as blocking pornography and other harmful content.

Online Safety for the Family Initiative Launched by Morris & Schaefer Learning Co.

The Morris & Schaefer Learning Co., LLC, the owners and operators of LearningFromAtoZ.com, announced today that they are launching an online safety initiative that will focus on teaching parents how to keep themselves and their kids safe online.

The "Online Safety for the Family" initiative was launched today in conjunction with an appearance on Daybreak USA. Derick Schaefer of the company’s ownership group, joined host Scott West to discuss the plans for the initiative and provide some simple overview tips parents can implement immediately into their family’s online habits.

ISPs are battling proposals by officials in Brussels that would force them to block access to child pornography, arguing that such systems only hide the problem.

The European Commission has drafted new laws that will be voted on by the European Parliament next month. The technical solutions envisaged are broadly based on arrangements in the UK, where all major ISPs block access to child abuse websites named on a list maintained by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF).

The browser provides immediate and highly accurate protection from content that is not appropriate for young children, including pornography, hate/violence, illegal drugs and gambling. In addition, the browser protects against phishing and malware. It is simple to install and use.

Vulnerable children are being taught how to stay safer online thanks to two new educational films and teaching resources by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre - the UK’s centre for child protection.

The resources have been created in the recognition that vulnerable young people and those with additional needs and learning difficulties can be more susceptible to abuse, making the provision of online safety messages in a variety of formats especially important.

The Italian Postal and Communications Police, supported by Europol, have uncovered a criminal group who install malicious software on businesses’ unprotected web servers to distribute shocking child sex abuse material online. The Italian Police were first alerted to the criminal activity when a grandmother, who had been innocently surfing the internet buying gifts for her grandchildren, clicked on a link to an online shop only to find herself redirected to a child abuse website. She immediately informed the police who, in early 2009, began routinely monitoring the activities of the illicit web pages which seemed to be hosted on an Italian web server.

Presented by Licensed Professional Counselor Intern and Nationally Certified Counselor Rachel Marita Sloan and sponsored by The Ryan Project, Sloan spoke on the subject of teens and cyber safety.

Sloan, who has a small practice in Plano and is opening one in Denton, touched on subjects concerning cyber and text language, internet use and “sexting,” or sending sexually explicit text messages or photographs through cell phones.

A UK body representing internet service providers has hit out at proposals that could lead to widespread censorship of the Internet. The Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) has said the plan, developed by the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government requiring ISPs to block pornographic websites will not be feasible.

Nicholas Lansman, secretary general of the ISPA, said: "blocking lawful pornography content...will lead to the blocking of access to legitimate content and is only effective in preventing inadvertent access.

Yahoo! Maktoob has announced the launch of a new innovative online program entitled Yahoo! Safety Oasis (http://esafe.yahoo.com/), aimed at engaging families and educators in providing support resources that educate, entertain and reward children about the incredible potentials for online learning, as well as how to safely surf the net through enhanced digital literacy.

Unsupervised access to smart-phone technology and the internet is a threat to children, parents were warned yesterday.

"Parents must understand that the boundaries of their homes in which their children were once safe no longer exist the second an internet cable enters their house," said Major Faisal al Shamari of the Higher Committee for the Protection of Children.

He was speaking in Dubai at the Working Group of Specialists Meeting on IT Crime, hosted by local police authorities in association with Interpol. Although he was unable to provide statistics, Maj al Shamari said incidents of children taking indecent pictures and posting them online were on the increase. "Our investigations suggest that children were using the smart phones to bypass proxies," he said.

Almost daily, we read of breaches regarding our personal and private data. In fact, a new poll shows more than 90 percent of those surveyed do not agree that social networking sites should share geo-location information without prior approval.

In fact, as concerning as such tracking is for adults, it becomes even more alarming for our children to be tracked. A McAfee/Harris poll showed 37 percent of 10- to 12-year-olds have a Facebook account. Many have little if any understanding of how their information is being used.

Games companies here are scrambling to adjust to the new online gaming restrictions soon to be imposed on young hardcore gamers. And it appears that many of them are putting more focus on games played on mobile phones to compensate for the expected loss in revenue from their personal computer (PC) products.

Despite fierce resistance from the games industry, the government has been moving to introduce strict limits on how much time youngsters can spend playing their favorite online computer games to combat addiction.

The Maldives’ Child Helpline represents “a great achievement” for the country after a year of operation, says Amrita Singh, Program Manager Asia Pacific Region for Child Helpline International (CHI).

CHI is an international network of telephone helplines and outreach services for children and young people across 150 countries. The network has been involved in setting up the Maldives helpline since its inception in 2007. Singh visited the helpline at the Department of Family and Gender last week.

South Korea's government is close to adopting a "Cinderella" law to ban youngsters from playing online games past midnight amid growing concerns about Internet addiction, officials said Thursday.

A bill to be submitted to parliament as early as this month will require South Korean online game companies to cut off services at midnight for users registered as younger than 16, the culture and family ministries said.

"The thing about online games is, once you are in it, it is extremely hard to get out of it, especially if you are a young kid," Jo Rin, a ministry official in charge of the law, told AFP.

"A lot of kids play games all night long and have trouble studying at school and going about their normal lives during daytime. We believe the law is necessary to ensure their health and a right to sleep."

ITU released in November 2010 a report which is the world’s first attempt to provide the overall statistical framework related to the measurement of child online protection with a particular emphasis on measures that are suitable for international comparison.

Child Online Protection taken to new level - President of Costa Rica and ITU Secretary-General announce action phase for initiative

On 17 November 2010, the Child Online Protection (COP) Global Initiative was launched in San José, by the ITU Secretary- General, Hamadoun Touré, together with the new Patron of COP, H.E. Laura Chinchilla, President of Costa Rica.

The COP Global Initiative aims to shift COP Guidelines, developed by ITU and partners from industry, civil society, governments, UN agencies and other stakeholders, into concrete activities by leveraging the active support from COP members.

Through this COP Global Initiative, ITU is taking the next steps to develop a cybersecurity strategy for child online safety, in order to deliver significant national benefits by creating a more secure and safer online experience for children worldwide.

The gap in facilities between research hospitals in central Nairobi and clinics around the rest of Kenya is vast, but need not be unbridgeable. Reporting for CNN World View, UNTV’s Andrew Martin explains how relatively simple, low-cost technology is making a difference to a remote rural clinic in Eastern Kenya.

A Parents' Guide to Facebook Offers Hands-On Help in Optimizing Teens' Safety and Privacy on World's No. 1 Social Networking Site

Guidebook by Anne Collier and Larry Magid of COnnectSafely.org is published in partnership with the iKeepSafe Coalition.

ConnectSafely.org and the iKeepSafe Coalition are pleased to announce the publication of A Parents' Guide to Facebook. The 35-page booklet and online resource – available for reading and printing at www.connectsafely.org/fbparents – provides parents with the perspective and how-to information they need to help their teens optimize their privacy and safety on Facebook. Magid and Collier had earlier co-authored MySpace Unraveled: A Parents' Guide to Teen Social Networking (Peachpit Press, 2006).

The guide features hands-on, step-by-step instructions and illustrations, as well as parenting points on safety, privacy, and reputation protection. It covers both cellphone- and computer-based use of Facebook and the site's newest features, including Places, Groups, and the latest privacy updates.

A Parents' Guide to Facebook Offers Hands-On Help in Optimizing Teens' Safety and Privacy on World's No. 1 Social Networking Site

Guidebook by Anne Collier and Larry Magid of COnnectSafely.org is published in partnership with the iKeepSafe Coalition.

ConnectSafely.org and the iKeepSafe Coalition are pleased to announce the publication of A Parents' Guide to Facebook. The 35-page booklet and online resource – available for reading and printing at www.connectsafely.org/fbparents – provides parents with the perspective and how-to information they need to help their teens optimize their privacy and safety on Facebook. Magid and Collier had earlier co-authored MySpace Unraveled: A Parents' Guide to Teen Social Networking (Peachpit Press, 2006).

The guide features hands-on, step-by-step instructions and illustrations, as well as parenting points on safety, privacy, and reputation protection. It covers both cellphone- and computer-based use of Facebook and the site's newest features, including Places, Groups, and the latest privacy updates.

Guadalajara, Mexico, 22 October 2010 — ITU’s 18th ITU Plenipotentiary Conference draws to a close today with delegates agreeing on ITU’s essential role in several key areas. ITU’s mandate has been strengthened in bridging the digital divide, strategies to accelerate broadband roll-out, and implementing the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society, and extending its involvement in areas such as better use of information and communication technologies to manage climate change and disaster response; conformance and interoperability; and accessibility for persons with disabilities.

A last minute compromise saw consensus on a number of key Resolutions on Internet issues. The agreements strengthen and underline ITU’s commitment to work with the Internet community and extend the benefits of the Internet to all global citizens.

The Conference also agreed on ITU’s Strategic Plan 2012-2015, and adopted the Financial Plan for the same period. Both will help the Union implement the decisions of the conference during the next four years until the 2014 Plenipotentiary.

ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré told delegates that the Guadalajara conference had been one of the most challenging in the Union’s 145-year history: “I came to this 18th Plenipotentiary Conference with news of the extraordinary progress that had been made in ICT development in the space of just four years,” he said. “I am absolutely confident that when we meet again, in four years’ time, I will be able to report even more dramatic progress. And that this progress will be very much due to the work that has been done here, by you, in Guadalajara.

“ITU will continue to work with our Member States and Sector Members − and indeed stakeholders across the broader ICT sector − to face the changes in the ICT environment; to cooperate with our membership; and to protect the all-important principle of multilateralism and cooperation among the international community in the modern world,” he said.

UN Radio: Jamaica committed to use of ICT to drive development, increase knowledge & meet the challenges of our time

The Plenipotentiary Conference is the key event at which ITU member States decide on the future role of the organization, thereby determining the organization's ability to influence and affect the development of Information and Communication Technologies-ICTs- worldwide. During the plenary session, Jamaica's Minister of State in the Prime -Minister's office Clive Mullings said that Jamaica is committed to the use of information, communication and technology to drive development, increase knowledge and meet the challenges of our time.

He noted that since becoming a member State of the ITU in 1963, Jamaica has been committed to the best use of information and communications technologies for the advancement of Jamaicans and the peoples of the world.

-Over 2,500 delegates registered from 167 countries at the conference, with over 2,000 delegates coming to Guadalajara – including 130 Ministers, Deputy Ministers and Ambassadors.

-545 meetings held onsite in Guadalajara Expo, dealing with a total of 528 proposals from members during the Conference.

-Over 800 local staff assisting with the event, along with more than 250 ITU staff, including over 70 interpreters.

-More than a thousand shuttle bus journeys have conveyed staff and delegates to and from their hotels.

-Over 35,000 pictures have been taken by ITU photographers, with almost 2,000 being published online and available for download by delegates. Over 100,000 photo views on Flickr.

-28 videos produced which have been watched over 4,000 times on YouTube as well as being broadcast here in Guadalajara Expo. While PP-10 has been on, ITU’s YouTube channel as a whole has just passed a quarter of a million video views.

-Over 1,500 media clippings from Angola to Venezuela and from Armenia to Zambia.

-Over 75,000 visits to the PP-10 website over the past two and a half weeks, and almost half a million page views.

-Over 200 hours of live broadcast webcasts, representing well over a thousand hours of audio/video archives, considering the six languages used.

-1,500 hours of interpretation and almost six thousand pages of translated documents.

-Less paper than ever before used– saving an estimated printing of just over a million pages!. In terms of greenhouse gases saved, this amounts to over 5 tonnes, or the equivalent of running a typical family car for a whole year.

Clara Luz Álvarez, Rapporteur for ITU-D Q20, discusses the importance of taking accessibility into account at the design and production phase of ICT equipment and of public policies/law to enable persons with disabilities with equal opportunity to connect to ICTs: http://bit.ly/9mTs9f

The conference noted that the dates for the next Radiocommunication Assembly (RA) have been set for 16‑20 January 2012, and those for the next World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) for 23 January - 17 February 2012. It agreed on the schedule of future conferences, assemblies and forums for the years 2011-2014 as shown below:

-World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA): November 2012;-World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT): November 2012;-World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC): March-April 2014;-Plenipotentiary Conference (PP-14): to be held in Korea (Republic of).

These events should be held within the periods. However, the precise dates and places, where not already decided, will be set by the Council after consultation of the Member States, leaving sufficient time between the various conferences. Their exact duration will be decided by the Council after their agendas have been established. The conference emphasized that the dates and durations of RA‑12 and WRC-12, for which the agendas have been established must not be modified.

New Resolution: Role of telecommunications/ICTs on climate change and the protection of the environment

This new resolution seeks to establish a sound basis for ITU’s work surrounding the role of telecommunications/ICT in climate change and the protection of the environment. Recognizing existing Council and World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC) resolutions on ICTs and climate change, it acknowledges that ICTs contribute to greenhousegGas (GHG) emissions, but also play an important role in tackling climate change and protecting the environment.

The resolution notes the body of existing work carried out by ITU-T on methodologies for evaluating the energy efficiency of ICT equipment and monitoring their impact and effects on climate change. It also acknowledges ITU-R’s leadership in studying the use of radiocommunication systems and remote sensing applications to improve climate monitoring, disaster prediction and relief, as well as the work done by ITU-D in this domain.

ITU is called upon to continue demonstrating its leadership and developing its activities in this area, including through workshops, seminars, training courses and best practice guidelines. ITU should promote awareness of the environmental issues surrounding telecommunication/ICT equipment and encourage energy efficiency in the design and manufacture of such equipment to promote a clean and safe environment. The Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB) should continue its work on evaluation methodologies for energy efficiency and the GHG emissions of ICTs. ITU should also provide assistance to developing countries to strengthen their human and institutional capacity for tackling and adapting to climate change, including disaster management planning.

The Resolution invites ITU’s membership - its Member States, Sector Members and Associates – to contribute to the work of ITU as well as the broader UN process on climate change. It asks ITU’s broader membership to take the necessary measures to reduce the effects of climate change by developing and using more energy-efficient ICT devices, applications and networks and to promote recycling and the reuse of ICT equipment. It also calls upon them to continue or initiate public and private programmes including ICTs and climate change, while giving due consideration to relevant ITU initiatives. It is hoped that this Resolution will help pave the way for ITU’s work in the area of ICTs and climate change, one of the biggest challenges facing mankind, and indeed the planet, today.

In response to considerable concern about how best to protect vulnerable children and youth online, this new resolution seeks to establish a mandate for ITU’s work and activities in this area, pursuant to the existing ITU Council resolutions. It recognizes the diverse nature of access to ICTs and the increasingly widespread use of ICTs by children, at times without control or guidance. It acknowledges the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) outcome documents, which recognized the role of ICTs in enhancing the development of children and as a tool to achieve international development goals, such as the Millennium Development Goals.

The Resolution encourages ITU to continue its Child Online Protection (COP) initiative as a platform to raise awareness and educate stakeholders in this vital issue. It also requests the ITU Council to continue its Council Working Group on child online protection - in the discussions relating to this resolution, a large number of Member States indicated their support for the continuation of the Council Working Group. It encourages the ITU Secretary-General to coordinate ITU activities with other initiatives at the national, regional and international levels, as well as bringing this resolution to the attention of the UN Secretary-General with the aim of increasing the commitment of the UN system in child online protection.

Resolution 123: Bridging the standardization gap between developed and developing countries

This resolution seeks to establish a clear basis for ITU’s activities to help bridge the standardization gap. It acknowledges that technological realities and needs vary from country to country and region to region. However, persistent concerns have arisen over developing countries’ ability to participate in ITU’s standardization activities, and it notes that major disparities in knowledge and management of standards remain between developed and developing countries. The resolution suggests that this standardization and ‘knowledge gap’ may potentially arise through lack of awareness of standardization activities, difficulties in accessing information, lack of training or lack of financial resources to engage in travel.

In order to help overcome divides in participation, knowledge and management of standards, the resolution asks the ITU Secretary-General and the Directors of the three ITU Bureaux to work closely with each other on this issue and to step up actions to reduce the standardization gap. It resolves that close coordination should be maintained among the three Sectors at the regional level, involving ITU’s regional offices. ITU is encouraged to identify means and support for the participation of representatives of developing countries in its meetings and to report on its follow-up. ITU Member States and Sector Members are invited to make both financial and in-kind contributions to support ITU’s actions and help boost the fund for bridging the standardization gap. This resolution provides a sound basis for helping boost the participation of developing countries in ITU’s standardization activities.

The conference carefully examined the proposals from Member States with regard to the free on-line access policy on ITU publications. They considered this as an issue of high importance. The decision reached on 21 October is not only of a financial nature, but also more of a strategic dimension for ITU’s work, the conference underlined. In his report to the conference, Bruce Gracie, who chaired Committee 6, where the issue was widely debated , said: “The adverse impact on ITU’s revenue has to balance with the increased visibility that the free online policy is providing”. Free access to ITU-T Recommendations was recognized as being an outstanding achievement for international telecommunications, and members advocated for the adoption of a symmetrical approach across ITU. The ITU secretariat had explained, during the debates, that the estimated loss over a four-year period would be CHF 1.2 million. According to the new decision, free online access will be provided for ITU-R Recommendations, ITU-R Reports, the Basic Texts of the Union and the Final Acts of Plenipotentiary Conferences to the general public on a permanent basis. The Decision also instructs the Secretary-General to prepare a report on the revenue of sales of ITU Publications, software and databases, and to present this report to Council 2011.

The ITU Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) and the ITU Telecommunications Sector (ITU-T) are collaborating with other expert organizations in work relating to human exposure to electromagnetic fields. ITU has expertise in calculating and measuring the field strength and power density of radio signals, while WHO and the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) have specialized health expertise and competence to assess the impact of radio waves on the human body.

Today the Plenipotentiary Conference adopted a new resolution that will spur ITU work in this area to assist national administrations, particularly in developing countries. ITU will collect and disseminate information on exposure to electromagnetic fields, and on methods of measuring exposure.

Regional seminars and workshops will be held to build human capacity, and Member States are expected to share their expertise and resources. The Council and the next Plenipotentiary Conference will get reports on the matter.

Guidelines on limits of exposure to electromagnetic fields have been established by ICNIRP, the International Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC). The new resolution sets out a complementary role for ITU in supporting Member States in measuring exposure and in related capacity-building.

The conference decided that ITU will continue to implement Resolution 76 of the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (Johannesburg, 2008) and Resolution 47 (Rev. Hyderabad, 2010), along with the recommendations of the Director of the Telecommunication Standardization Bureau ( TSB), endorsed by the Council at its 2009 session, regarding:

This is the thrust of a new resolution just adopted on conformance and interoperability. The resolution emphasizes that this programme of work be implemented in parallel without any delay. The Director TSB is asked to prepare a business plan for the long-term implementation of this resolution. The programme of work includes building up a pilot database into a fully functioning conformity database. The implementation of the conformity database will take into consideration the outcome and effect on Member States, Sector Members and stakeholders, how it will help bridge the standardization gap, potential liability issues, and the results of the regional ITU conformity and interoperability consultations.

A major part of the programme will be to assist developing countries to establish regional or subregional conformity and interoperability centres that can carry out interoperability testing.

Malcolm Johnson, who was recently re-elected Director of TSB with an overwhelming majority, is called upon to study the possibility of a future ITU Mark programme. This would be a voluntary programme permitting manufacturers and service providers to make a visible declaration that their equipment conforms to ITU-T Recommendations.

The Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) is expected to collaborate with the Director of TSB and Director of BR to advance the implementation of Resolution 47 (Rev. Hyderabad, 2010) and to assist Member States in dealing with the problem of counterfeit equipment. Developing countries, in particular, are worried about counterfeit equipment because it may negatively affect the quality of their telecommunication infrastructure.

ITU’s ability to assess and recognize conformity and interoperability will be a driver for raising awareness and building capacity in developing countries. BDT will be the focal point for this activity through its global and regional initiatives, including the centres of excellence.

Presenting the report of the Director of TSB to the Working Group of the Plenary where agreement was first reached on the new resolution, R. Scholl said that a major concern raised at WTSA-08 was the lack of conformance and interoperability of equipment being placed on the market, especially in developing countries. To respond to that concern, TSB has developed a pilot conformity database, which is currently available only to ITU members. Entry in the database is voluntary and free of charge. Details of products and services that have been recognized by ITU as being in conformity with ITU-T Recommendations can be listed in the database. Subject to testing, a vendor is entitled to claim recognition of conformity.

ITU’s Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) held two interoperability events - in July and in September 2010 - to test its IPTV suites of standards, and a third event will take place in December. These events are generating a lot of interest. Also, the mood evident during three regional ITU consultation meetings on conformance assessment and interoperability was of considerable support for Resolution 76 of WTSA-08. The overall consensus was that it would benefit both developing and developed countries if this resolution was implemented without further delay. In this regard, the resolution adopted in Guadalajara represents an important milestone.

Role of administrations of Member States in the management of internationalized (multilingual) domain names

The resolution updates and sets out the role of ITU in relation to the role of administrations of Member States in the management of internationalized domain names (IDNs). It recognizes the need to promote the use of internationalized domain names in order to overcome linguistic barriers to Internet access and recalls previous standardization work done by ITU-T in non-Latin character sets for data transfer globally. Noting that the current domain name system does not fully reflect the diverse and growing language needs of all users and that IDNs should be widely accessible, it instructs the ITU Secretary-General and Directors of the three Bureaux to take an active part in international discussions, initiatives and activities on the deployment and management of internationalized Internet domain names, in cooperation with relevant organizations, including WIPO and UNESCO. It calls upon ITU elected officials to take action to ensure the sovereignty of ITU Member States with regard to ITU-T Recommendation E.164 numbering plans (in whichever application they are used) and to promote the role of the ITU membership in the internationalization of domain names in different language scripts using their specific character sets. Again, it also calls for greater collaboration and coordination between ITU and relevant organizations (including, but not limited to ICANN, the RIRs, the IETF, ISOC and W3C on a reciprocity basis) and awareness-raising at the national and regional levels among interested parties.

ITU's role with regard to international public policy issues pertaining to the Internet and management of Internet resources, including domain names & addresses

This updated resolution complements existing ITU resolutions on ITU’s role in public policy issues (for example, Council Resolution 1305 approved at its 2009 Session). It describes ITU’s role with regard to international public policy issues pertaining to the Internet and recognizes that ITU deals with both technical and policy issues related to IP-based networks, including the existing Internet, future Internet and the evolution to NGN.. According to the Resolution, significant effort has been put in by ITU on ENUM, “.int”, internationalized domain name (IDN), and country code top-level domain (ccTLD) issues through workshops and standardization activities.

The resolution also emphasizes that ITU’s Dedicated Group on Internet-related public policy issues should continue its work. It notes that the Dedicated Group would be more efficient if it became autonomous and directly responsible to the ITU Council, with all three Sectors contributing to its work. On this basis, the Resolution asks that Council makes the Dedicated Group a Council Working Group enjoying open consultation to all stakeholders. (This suggestion remains subject to Council’s approval and endorsement following PP-10).

The resolution instructs the Director of the Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB) to continue performing its role in technical issues and to liaise and cooperate with appropriate entities on issues related to the management of Internet domain names and addresses and other Internet resources (such as IPv6, ENUM and IDNs). It further instructs the Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) to organize international and regional forums to discuss policy, operational and technical issues on the management of Internet domain names and addresses and other Internet resources.

This resolution calls for ITU to continue to play a facilitating role in the coordination of international Internet-related public policy issues. Again, significantly, it calls for greater collaboration and coordination between ITU and relevant organizations (including, but not limited to ICANN, the RIRs, the IETF, ISOC and W3C on a reciprocity basis). It instructs the ITU Secretary-General to take a significant role in international discussions and initiatives on the management of Internet domain names and addresses and other Internet resources and for ITU to continue to play a facilitating role in the coordination of international Internet-related public policy issues. It invites ITU membership to participate in discussions in this field, to cooperate with relevant organizations and to contribute to the Dedicated Group and ITU Study Groups on related matters.

This Resolution revised and updates an existing resolution from Antalya (2006). It considers recent advances in global information infrastructure, including the development of Internet Protocol (IP)-based networks and the Internet, as well as future IP developments and new applications. It also acknowledges various challenges with regard to quality of service, uncertainty of origin (of IP traffic) and the high cost of international connectivity. It recognizes ITU-T’s work on IP‑based network issues, including service interoperability with other telecommunication networks, numbering, signalling requirements and protocol aspects, security and infrastructure component costs, and issues associated with the evolution to next-generation networks (NGN).

The Resolution requests all three Sectors to consider their future work programmes on IP-based networks and on migration to NGN and future networks. It asks ITU-T to continue its collaborative activities with ISOC/IETF and other relevant organizations, in respect of interconnectivity and migration to NGN. It asks ITU to fully embrace the opportunities for telecommunication/ICT development arising from the growth of IP-based services, and to continue its study of international Internet connectivity as an urgent matter. It also encourages ITU to identify clearly the range of Internet-related issues falling within its responsibilities according to its basic texts and the WSIS outcome documents. The Resolution calls on ITU membership to raise awareness at the national, regional and international levels. However, the most significant item in this resolution lies in its call for greater collaboration and coordination between ITU and relevant organizations (including, but not limited to ICANN, the RIRs, the IETF, ISOC and W3C on a reciprocity basis), as well as UNESCO and the Broadband Commission for Digital Development.

This new resolution is ITU’s first Plenipotentiary resolution focused on IPv6, and breaks new ground for ITU as it seeks to modernize and adapt its work to Internet Protocol (IP)-based next-generation networks. Considering the imminent exhaustion of IPv4 addresses and that specific actions must be defined for the transition to IPv6, it recognizes the opportunities opened up for the development of ICTs by IPv6 and that the early adoption of IPv6 is the best way forward to avoid scarcity of IP addresses and the follow-on effects of IPv4 address exhaustion.

The resolution seeks to step up the exchange of experiences and information regarding the adoption of IPv6 with all stakeholders and create opportunities for collaborative efforts to support the transition to IPv6. It seeks to assist Member States which require support in the management and allocation of IPv6 resources. It notes the work of the existing IPv6 working group set up by the 2009 Session of Council and asks it to undertake detailed studies of IP address allocation for both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. It also calls for ITU to study and monitor current allocation mechanisms, identify any flaws arising and communicate proposals for changes to existing policies, if appropriate. It invites Member States to develop specific initiatives at the national level fostering interaction between governmental, private and academic entities and civil society.

New Resolution: Overall review of implementation of the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)

This new resolution recalls ITU’s role in implementing the WSIS outcomes, as outlined in Resolution 140 (Rev. Guadalajara, 2010). It also cites Paragraph 111 of the Tunis Agenda, which requested the United Nations General Assembly to make an overall review of the implementation of WSIS outcomes in 2015. In response to that request, the United Nations General Assembly, in its Resolution 60/252, decided to conduct an overall review of the implementation of the Summit outcomes in 2015.

The new resolution instructs the ITU Secretary-General to initiate consultations with the United Nations Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB) in order to prepare the overall review of implementation of WSIS outcomes in 2015, including the possibility of holding a high-level event in 2014 or 2015. He is also instructed to propose to CEB to make the necessary preparations based on the multi-stakeholder approach; pursue efficient and effective coordination with all stakeholders in preparing the overall review; and report to the Council on the results of this process, for its consideration and decision.

For its part, the Council is instructed, in the light of the results of the Secretary-General’s consultation, to:

- consider and decide on ITU's role in, and contribution to, the overall review process; - examine ways and means to enhance ITU’s lead role in any relevant preparatory process;- request the Secretary-General, under the preparatory process, to coordinate with all stakeholders and provide mechanisms, including the possibility of holding open consultations; - evaluate, at its 2011 session, the financial burden for ITU that might result from its contribution to the preparatory process;- report to the next Plenipotentiary Conference on preparations for final overall review of the implementation of the WSIS outcomes and formulate proposals for further activities.

Updated Resolutions: Status of Palestine and Assistance & Support for rebuilding its telecoms networks

After negotiations led by the Chairman of the Conference, Fernando Borjón, and ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun I. Touré and with the active participation of the parties concerned, a compromise was reached with regard to revisions to Resolutions 99 (Rev. Antalya, 2006) on the “status of Palestine” and 125 (Rev. Marrakesh, 2002) on “assistance and support to Palestine for rebuilding its telecommunication networks”.

Resolution 99 has been updated and resolves that, pending any further change in the current status of Palestine as observer in ITU, Palestine shall participate in all ITU conferences, assemblies and meetings and in treaty-making conferences with the following additional rights to what they already have:

-the right to raise points of order;-the right to co-sponsor proposals;

Palestine shall have the right to attend the Heads of Delegation meetings. It shall also have the right to request the verbatim insertion of any declaration made during the course of a debate.

Assistance and support to Palestine for rebuilding its telecommunication networks Resolution 125 (Rev. Guadalajara, 2010) first recalls the decision of the United Nations General Assembly to use the designation "Palestine" in the United Nations system. The update considers that the international community has an important role in assisting Palestine to develop a modern and reliable telecommunication network. It states that a large part of the Palestinian telecommunication infrastructure has been significantly damaged in recent years. Other changes to the resolution call upon Member States to make every effort with a view, among other things, to providing all forms of assistance and support to Palestine, bilaterally or through executive measures taken by ITU, in rebuilding, restoring and developing its telecommunication network. In this regard, the Council is invited to allocate the necessary funds, within available resources, to implement the updated resolution. The Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) is instructed to take appropriate measures, within the mandate of BDT, to facilitate the establishment of international access networks, including terrestrial and satellite stations, submarine cables, optical fibre and microwave systems.

The State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples (2010) report contains alarming statistical data on this group in such areas as health, human rights, education and employment. Committee 6 examined the Inter-American proposal on this subject, and requested, following a debate that the proposal be reviewed with a view to improving the Union’s mechanism for granting fellowships. It was argued that the state of indigenous people places them in a situation similar to that of least developed countries, despite the fact that some of them live in developed countries.

ITU is encouraged, through a new resolution entitled "facilitating digital inclusion initiatives for indigenous peoples", to make it easier to grant fellowships to indigenous people as part of the Digital Inclusion Initiative of ITU’s Telecommunication Development Sector (ITU-D). The aim is to allow indigenous people to attend workshops, seminars, events, and other types of capacity-building events organized by ITU. But the resolution adds the caveat that Member States will have the authority to consider the requests of indigenous people, if and when the country is eligible for fellowship grants. The new resolution also cites Resolution 68 of the World Telecommunication Development Conference (Hyderabad, 2010) on the inclusion of indigenous people in the activities of BDT, requesting ITU to recognize and encourage indigenous people to participate in ITU's work.

A new resolution notes the vulnerability of critical national infrastructure and its increasing dependence on information and communication technologies and the threats resulting from the illicit use of these technologies. It says that Illicit use of ICT could have a detrimental impact on a country’s infrastructure, national security, and economic development. The resolution is entitled “ITU's role with regard to international public policy issues relating to the risk of illicit use of information and communication technologies”. It instructs the Secretary-General to take the necessary measures to:

- raise awareness of Member States regarding the adverse impact that may result from the illicit use of information and communication resources.

- maintain the role of ITU to cooperate within its mandate with other United Nations bodies in combating the illicit use of ICT.

The resolution underlines the importance of the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). It resolves that ITU in its capacity as facilitator of WSIS Action Line C5 on “building confidence and security in the use of ICT”, will organize meetings of Member States and relevant ICT stakeholders, including geospatial and information service providers, to discuss alternative approaches to solutions in order to address and prevent the illicit application of ICT, while taking into consideration the overall interests of the ICT industry.

The Secretary-General is instructed to collect best practices from Member States on their actions taken to prevent the illicit use of ICT, and provide assistance to those who need it .

Member States and relevant ICT stakeholders are invited to pursue their dialogue at the regional and national levels in order to find mutually acceptable solutions. They should also provide the support needed to implement this resolution.

New Resolution: Accessibility for people with disabilities, including age-related disabilities

A new resolution sets out ways for ITU to mainstream people with disabilities in all its work. Entitled “Telecommunication/information and communication technology accessibility for persons with disabilities, including age-related disabilities”, the resolution recognizes a number of international agreements. These include the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which requires States Parties to adopt appropriate measures to provide access for persons with disabilities - on an equal basis with others - to ICT, emergency services and Internet service; Resolution 70 of the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (Johannesburg, 2008), Resolution 58 of the World Telecommunication Development Conference (Hyderabad, 2010); the Tunis Commitment, made at the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (Tunis, 2005), and the Phuket Declaration on Tsunami Preparedness for Persons with Disabilities.

The World Health Organization estimates that ten per cent of the world's population (more than 650 million people) are people with disabilities. This percentage may increase because of the greater availability of medical treatment, enabling sick or injured people live longer. Increased life expectancy in general means that there are more elderly people with the disabilities that come with age. Also, people may acquire disabilities through accidents, wars and the circumstances of poverty.

ITU is already collaborating with external entities and bodies concerned with this subject, and adopt a comprehensive action plan to extend access to telecommunication/ICT to people with disabilities. The experiences, views and opinions of people with disabilities have to be taken on board when developing and progressing ITU work.

The Secretary-General and Directors of the Bureaux will have to coordinate accessibility-related activities between the ITU-T, ITU-R, ITU-D, and ensure that the needs of persons with disabilities are taken into account. Of course, the financial implications of providing access will need to be considered. Within ITU, it may be possible to expand the fellowship programme to enable delegates with disabilities to participate in the work of the Union. Another useful step will be to identify, document and disseminate examples of best practices among ITU Member States and Sector Members.

Member States and Sector Members can help by developing guidelines to enhance the accessibility, compatibility and usability of telecommunication/ICT services, products and terminals. They can also introduce telecommunication/ICT services that are appropriate for people with disabilities, both in terms of technology and cost.

Reports on this matter will be submitted to the ITU Council and to the next Plenipotentiary Conference. A special trust fund has been set up by ITU to support activities relating to this resolution, and Member States and Sector Members are invited to contribute.

With the re-election in Guadalajara of myself as Secretary-General, Houlin Zhao as Deputy Secretary-General and Malcolm Johnson as Director of TSB, and the fresh election of François Rancy as Director of BR and Brahima Sanou as Director of BDT, we now have a powerful management team in place to carry out the Union’s work from 2011 to 2014.

We have a strong mandate from membership, and we have much to achieve over the next four years. We will therefore be counting on the continuing efforts of each and every member of ITU staff, as well as our Sector and Associate Members, to deliver on the promises made at the Plenipotentiary Conference in Guadalajara.

We will need to be productive, efficient and effective in our daily work if we are to meet our goals, and I am confident that the spirit of cooperation and partnership which has seen our great Union stay proud through the past 145 years will see us chart our way safely through the coming four years.

Next-generation networks (NGN) are important - indeed essential - for all countries, especially the developing ones, as proposals to the Guadalajara Conference underlined. Resolution 137 (Rev. Guadalajara, 2010) on “next-generation network deployment in developing countries” has been revised to reflect the outcomes of the World Telecommunication Development Conference, held in Hyderabad, India, in May-June 2010 (WTDC-10); the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly, held in Johannesburg , South Africa, in 2008 (WTSA-08); and the work of ITU-T Study Group 13 Focus Group on future networks. The revisions also include reference to WSIS Action Lines 2 (information and infrastructure) and 6 (an enabling environment).

Developing countries are still facing major challenges, exacerbated by shortages of resources, experience and capacity building in planning and deploying networks, especially next-generation networks. The conference also noted the delay in implementing and adopting these networks in developed countries. It recognized that the existing digital divide could get worse with the emergence of new technologies, including post-NGNs, if developing countries are not able to introduce these networks in a universal and timely manner.

The revisions make reference to Resolution 143 (Rev. Guadalajara, 2010), which calls for the provisions in all ITU documents relating to developing countries to be extended to apply adequately to the least developed countries, small island developing States, landlocked developing countries and countries with economies in transition.

The Directors of the three ITU Bureaux are instructed, among other things, to continuously consolidate their efforts in studies and standards-development activities on the deployment of NGN and future networks, especially those designed for rural areas and for bridging the digital divide and the development divide. In addition, the Directors are to coordinate studies and programmes under ITU-T’s Next-Generation Network Global Standards Initiative (NGN-GSI) and ITU-D’s Global Network Planning Initiatives (GNPi), as well as coordinate ongoing work in study groups and through relevant programmes defined in the Hyderabad Action Plan of WTDC-10. They will also seek solutions to speed up the deployment of affordable NGN in rural areas, using the success stories of developing countries that have migrated to such networks and benefit from their experience.

The Council is instructed to consider the reports and proposals made by the Secretary-General and the three Bureaux on implementing this resolution, making the appropriate linkage with the operative part of WTSA Resolution 44 (Rev. Johannesburg, 2008). It should also take appropriate action to ensure that the Union continues to pay attention to addressing the needs of developing countries.

Member States and Sector Members are called upon to strengthen cooperation between developed and developing countries, and among developing countries themselves, in improving national, regional and international capabilities to implement NGNs in a way that will enable them to handle future networks, especially in rural areas.

Updated Resolution: Assistance and support to Serbia for rebuilding its destroyed public broadcasting system

Reliable public broadcasting and telecommunication systems are indispensable for promoting the socio-economic development of countries - notably those having suffered from natural disasters, domestic conflicts or war. Serbia is one such country. The conference has updated Resolution 126 (Rev. Guadalajara, 2010) on “assistance and support to the Republic of Serbia for rebuilding its destroyed public broadcasting system”. ITU’s key role in rebuilding that country's telecommunication sector has been widely recognized.

The resolution underlines that the newly established public broadcasting facility in Serbia, public entity “Broadcast Multiplex and Network Operator” (ETV) – formerly a part of the Radio Television of Serbia – has been severely damaged. The damage to public broadcasting in Serbia, as the conference recognized, should be a matter of concern to the whole international community, in particular ITU. As public broadcaster, ETV is a public entity, which should start broadcasting digital television programmes on 4 April 2012. However, under the present conditions and in the foreseeable future, Serbia will not be able to bring its public broadcasting system and the digital switch-over process up to an acceptable level without help from the international community, provided bilaterally or through international organizations. The resolution, as updated, calls upon Member States to offer all possible assistance. It instructs the Council to allocate the necessary funds, within available resources. It instructs the Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau to use the necessary funds (also, within available resources), in order to continue appropriate action. The Secretary-General will coordinate the activities carried out by the ITU Sectors to ensure that the Union’s action in favour of Serbia is as effective as possible. He will report on the matter to the Council.

Updated Resolution: Gender equality… a focus on women and girls in ICT

Gender equality and women’s empowerment can be advanced in several ways through information and communication technologies (ICT). Encouraging girls to choose a career in the field of ICT, and fostering the use of ICT for the social and economic empowerment of women and girls, are obvious examples. The growing number of women in the ICT field with decision-making could push the work of ITU in this direction.

The revised resolution encourages Member States and Sector Members to facilitate the employment of women and men equally in the ICT/telecommunication field, including at senior levels of responsibility, and to increase opportunities for women and girls in ICT careers during elementary, secondary and higher education. One way to do this would be by establishing an international “Girls in ICT” day, to be celebrated annually on every fourth Thursday of April. This would provide an occasion for ICT companies, other companies with ICT departments, ICT training institutions, universities, research centres, and all ICT-related institutions to organize an open day for girls. Another way would be to support the work of the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) and of a “Global Network of women ICT decision-makers”. In this regard, the ITU Secretary-General is instructed to encourage the launch of such a network.

A gender perspective will be incorporated in the implementation of the ITU strategic plan and financial plan for 2012-2015, as well as in the operational plans of the Union’s three Bureaux and the General Secretariat. According to the resolution, the Council has the responsibility of expanding on the ITU initiatives of the past four years, to accelerate the gender mainstreaming process in ITU as a whole, within existing budgetary resources, so as to ensure capacity building and promotion of women at senior-level positions. In the resolution, the Council is instructed to consider selecting the theme “Women and Girls in ICT” to mark World Telecommunication and Information Society Day in 2012.

To implement the resolution, the Secretary-General is instructed to announce a year-long Call to Action with a focus on the theme “Women and Girls in ICT”, while the Director of BDT is to bring to the attention of other UN agencies the need to increase the interest and opportunities for girls and young women in ICT careers. The resolution invites Member States and Sector Members to establish and observe annually and internationally “Girls in ICT” day.

As we go to press with this issue of the Highlights, the Plenary is holding its first night session and has just confirmed the decisions taken at its meeting on 18 October. These decisions are reported here.

Conference approves Strategic Plan for ITU for the years 2012-2015

The conference has approved a new Strategic Plan for ITU for the years 2012-2015. This new plan highlights the central role of telecommunications in our modern lives and the profound changes now taking place in the industry that are bound to have far-reaching consequences for us all. The spread of Internet Protocol (IP)-based next-generation networks, convergence in devices and networks, and the rise of social networks mean that information and communication technologies (ICT) are responding to the changing needs of today’s consumers in a transformed communications landscape.

ITU, with its vision to connect the world in order to safeguard everyone’s fundamental right to communicate, needs a strong and effective strategic plan both to respond to the changing needs of its members and to prove its ongoing relevance in an all-IP world. Approving the plan, the conference expressed gratitude to Fabio Bigi of Italy for chairing the Working Group of the Council that developed a robust plan for the Union.

IndianTelevision.com: Garg to represent Asia on ITU Radio Regulation Board

NEW DELHI: The former Wireless Adviser to the Government, P K Garg, has been elected to represent Asia on the Radio Regulations Board of the International Telecommunication Union.

The other two members elected are Yasuhiko Ito from Japan who took 120 votes and Ali R. Ebadi from Malaysia (93 votes). Garg received 78 votes. Members are elected to represent Region E, Asia, and Australasia.

India was also elected among the 13 members on the ITU Council, getting 119 of the 161 votes. The other members are Indonesia, China, Japan, Malaysia, Republic of Korea, Bangladesh, Thailand, Australia, India, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the Philippines.

The elections took place at the ongoing ITU’s 18th Plenipotentiary conference at Mexico. This meet takes place every four years.

What does it take to put on an international meeting for some 2,500 delegates from some 160 countries, working in six different languages?

It’s no mean feat, that’s for sure. ITU’s simultaneous interpretation team, who provide feeds to the multilingual conferencing system in the rooms in each of the Union’s six official languages – Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish – is absolutely indispensable.

PP-10 has a team of 73 interpreters in total, representing many different nationalities and able to handle all six UN languages plus quite a few others too. Some of these talented linguists can even work in four official UN languages or more (but only one at a time!) and 100% attention is vital.

Ensconced in individual booths so that they can focus exclusively on the audio feed coming from the floor with no distractions or interruptions, interpreters for each of the six languages alternate with a colleague handling the same language every 30-minutes, so intense is the level of concentration needed to instantly communicate complex and often quite technical discussions into their assigned language.

“The sheer size and breadth of the team of interpreters on duty at P-10 is a testament to ITU’s reach and strength,” says Ewandro Magalhaes, Head of ITU’s Interpretation Section. “Few organizations can claim to rely on so large a team of interpreters for so long a conference. Plus, ITU interpreters are known to be among the most skilled, given the specialized jargon they have to handle.”

A draft new Resolution was approved this afternoon, permitting academia, universities and their associated research establishments concerned with the development of telecommunications/ICT to join ITU and participate in work of the 3 Sectors.

The financial contribution for such participation has been set at one-sixteenth of the value of a contributory unit for Sector Members from developed countries (3975 CHF) and one-thirty two of the value of the contributory unit for Sector Members for organizations from developing countries (1987.5 CHF).

Acceptance of applications for participation shall be conditional on the support of the Member States of the Union to which the bodies belong.

Keith Besgrove, First Assistant Secretary for the Digital Economy Services Division of the Australian Department of Broadband, Communications & the Digital Economy, discusses the impact of the National Broadband Network and National Disability Strategy on enhancing lives of persons with disabilities and the aboriginal community: http://bit.ly/9mTs9f

SA has again secured a seat on the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) council at the plenipotentiary conference in Mexico, the department of communications said on Friday.

“The appointment of SA to the ITU is a testimony that confirms member states’ confidence in the country’s contribution to the body of knowledge in the three sectors of the union and the ICT matter in general,” said department spokeswoman Busiswa Mlandu.

The three sectors of the union were telecommunications development, standardisation and radiocommunications.

SA was elected to the seat on October 10 after it obtained 105 of the 158 members’ votes.

Also scoring a victory for Africa, Hamadoun Touré from Mali was elected as the ITU secretary general and Brahima Sanou from Burkina Faso was elected as director of the telecoms development sector.

As a member of the council, SA would be responsible for assisting the ITU in implementing its constitution and any other decisions made at the plenipotentiary conference.

It would also be responsible for providing support and strategic direction to the secretary general and the directors of the three sectors. — Sapa

Is the accessibility for persons w/ disabilities to IT the invisible digital divide?

Cynthia Waddell, Executive Director of the International Center for Disability Resources on the Internet, talks on accessibility to ICTs, how it has revolutionized the lives of persons with disabilities, and the importance of Accessible Design: http://bit.ly/9mTs9f

Don't miss your chance to win one of 3 iPad Wi-Fi enabled tablet computers! Our competition is open to all registered PP-10 delegates and observers.

To enter, simply visit the PP-10 website at www.itu.int/plenipotentiary and click on Competition. You’ll be asked to answer one simple question, after which your name will be automatically entered in the prize draw, which will take place on Thursday, 21 November.

All delegates/observers are encouraged to participate, even if not present through until the end of the conference. Prizes will be shipped to winners should they not be able to collect their iPad.

Week two of the Guadalajara conference ends with debates going on in earnest

With the elections over, the conference has switched gear to deal with policy and strategic issues that will shape the future of telecommunications and information and communication technologies. A number of ad hoc and drafting groups have been set up by the various substantive Committees and by the Working Group of the Plenary to lead negotiations.As Highlights only cover plenary meetings where all decisions of the conference are taken, conclusions reached on issues under negotiation will be reported on in the third week of the conference. Meanwhile, this issue of the Highlights covers the discussion in the plenary meeting of 14 October, along with the side events organized during week two of the conference.

Malcolm Johnson, Director of ITU's Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, discusses the new programme of a vendor database for products tested to ITU standards and the industry concern over the multitude of standards bodies: http://bit.ly/9mTs9f

Vassilios Cassapoglou, Executive Director of the Greek Center of Space Science & Technology,talks about the mess in space and its implications for the future & safety of human activities in outer space: http://bit.ly/9mTs9f

Ghana maintained its seat on the 48-member council of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) at the 18th Plenipotentiary Conference of the union in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Ghana was elected among 13 countries from region D, made up of African countries. From the region of 21 countries vying for the 13 slots, Egypt, Kenya, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, South Africa, Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal and Cameroun were the other countries which were elected to the council.

Ghana’s delegation to the conference, which was led by the Minister of Communications, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, included a former Minister of Communications and incumbent Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Professor Mike Oquaye; Ghana’s Ambassador to the United States and Mexico, Mr Ohene Agyekum; the Director-General of the National Communications Authority (NCA), Mr Paarock VanPercy, and the Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Communications, Mr Twumasi Appiah.

Other members of the delegation were Mr Fritz Baffour, Member of the Parliamentary Select Committee; Alhaji Gamal A. Razak, Managing Director of Abrar International, and senior officials from the Ministry of Communications.

Mr Iddrisu told the Daily Graphic that the performance of Ghana was a testimony to the positive moves by the country to implement various policies as part of efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré was made an Honorary Citizen of the City of Guadalajara and awarded the Keys of the City by the Mayor of Guadalajara, Mr Jorge Aristóteles Sandoval, in a ceremony held at the city’s gracious Palacio Municipal at midday today.

Dr Touré praised the warmth, professionalism and indomitable spirit of the people of Guadalajara, which, he said, had all contributed to making PP-10 such a tremendous success. He also complemented the city on its cultural richness, its varied cuisine, and its passionate commitment to ICTs, which have helped it quickly position itself as ‘the Mexican Silicon Valley’.

“Guadalajara will hold a very special place in my heart for the rest of my days,” he said.

ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré found himself exuberantly mobbed by hundreds of small children this morning, as he assisted in the inauguration of a new Digital Classroom at the Ricardo Flores Magón primary school in the colonia of Santa Eduwiges, just a few minutes from Guadalajara Expo centre.

A joint initiative of the Carlos Slim Foundation and ITU’s Connect a School, Connect a Community programme, the ‘Aula Digital’ features a range of different types of computers and electronic equipment, including Dell laptops, bright green-and-white XO laptops from One Laptop Per Child, and large-screen Mexican-manufactured Lanix machines.

Addressing the school’s staff and 850 children aged between 6-12 years, along with dignitaries including Mr Antonio Gloria Morales, the Minister of Education for the State of Jalisco, Dr Javier Elguea Solís, of the Carlos Slim Foundation, and the Principal of the school’s morning programme, Ms Graciela Gómez Castellanos, Dr Touré said: “There is no more important institution in the world than a school... schools are the foundation of everything we do; every service which is provided by governments or industry; and every opportunity for social and economic development.”

Ricardo Flores Magón’s new Digital Classroom is the 17th such learning centre funded and installed by the Carlos Slim Foundation in the Guadalajara area. Demonstrating the facilities to Dr Touré, Mr Solís showed how the children are now able to connect to a network of over 100,000 computers in 1,000 schools throughout Mexico, providing more than half a million school-age children with access to the wealth of information on the web, as well as to advanced e-learning applications.

Clearly moved by the children’s unbridled enthusiasm for the new technology on offer, Dr Touré said: “Coming here and looking in your eyes gives me great hope for the future,” he said, “because I see today a very proud future in each of your eyes”.

The surprise announcement by Minister Morales that the State of Jalisco would donate a technology teacher to the school elicited another loud cheer from the children and warm applause from the Principal, teachers and representative of the local Parents’ Association, Ms Angeles Navarro Silva, whose 11-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter will soon be benefiting from the new classroom. On behalf of the school’s parents, Ms Silva also presented Mr Solís with the gift of an imposing silver coat rack, to express their gratitude for the exciting opportunities the new facilities will offer their children.

Bangladesh has been elected council member of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for the period 2010-2014 in the Asia and Australasia region.

Bangladesh has secured the 6th position out of 13 seats in this region and has obtained 123 votes, said Major M A Kashem (Rtd), consultant of Bangladesh Telecommunication and Regulatory Commission (BTRC), (Submarine Cable System). The election was held in Guadalajara in Mexico Monday.

Bangladesh achieved such a huge success at its first participation and hence it can be described as a great achievement of the nation, Mr Kashem said.

From now on Bangladesh can take part in making decision regarding the ITU regulations as well as in the policy making process in relation to telecommunication, he said.

This success will encourage Bangladesh not only to play a vital role but also to play the role of a pioneer for the least developed countries, which will help us a lot to build up Digital Bangladesh, he said.

The Bangladesh delegation was lead by Post and Telecommunication Minister Raziuddin Ahmed Raju, Chairman of the parliamentary committee on the ministry Hasanul Huq Inu, Secretary Sunil Kanti Bose, BTRC Chairman Zia Ahmed and members of the parliamentary committee.

JAKARTA - Indonesia has been reelected as a member of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) for the 2010-2014 period, a Communication Ministry spokesman said.

"The reelection of Indonesia as a member of ITU was the result of the work hard of Indonesian delegates in conducting lobbying during the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference being held from October 4 to 22," Gatot S Dewa Broto, head of human relations affairs of the the Ministry of Communications and Informatics, said here on Tuesday.

He said that Indonesia had an interest in being reelected member of the Union because it had a large telecommunications market which was developing rapidly with progressive development activities.

Gatot said that Indonesia had taken an active part in the ITU Council's forums during its membership periods of 2002 - 2006 and 2006 - 2010.

With its reelection as a member of ITU for the 2010 - 2014 period, Indonesia would be able to fight for the interest of developing nations in the industrial field, particularly regarding Indonesia's interest in telecommunications, radio frequencies and satellite orbits, he said.

KIGALI - Rwanda has been elected to The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Council, during the ongoing ITU’s Plenipotentiary Conference in Guadalajara, Mexico.

The ITU is an agency of the United Nations responsible for coordinating effective development and use of telecommunications globally.

Its core activities involve management of international frequency spectrum, satellite orbit resources and making of telecommunications standards that govern telecommunications industry. It also promotes the ICT growth and development globally.

The ITU council, composed of 46 member states, is responsible for smooth running of the union and setting broad policies that govern telecommunications at a global level.

Rwanda’s delegation at the campaign in Mexico was headed by Dr. Ignace Gatare, the Minister in the President’s Office in charge of Information and Communications Technology.

“Rwanda’s election to the ITU council is a major milestone in the country’s ICT development, and a recognition of the global role President Paul Kagame continues to play in ensuring that ICT is developed and accessible to address some of the world’s challenges,” said David Kanamugire, the Permanent Secretary in the ICT Ministry.

GUADALAJARA, Mexico, Oct 13 - It was a double success for Kenya on Tuesday as the country was elected to two key positions in a specialised United Nations Agency.

Kenya was picked to the International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) Council and the Radio Regulation Board (RRB) during the ongoing ITU’s 18th Plenipotentiary Conference in Guadalajara, Mexico.

The country, which has served in the Council since her first election in 1982, garnered 119 votes out of 161 eligible voting Member States, to return the second highest tally behind Egypt in Region D (Africa).

“Kenya is headed for great things and by supporting each other and working as a team we can achieve anything we put our mind to,” Information and Communications Minister Samuel Poghisio said while congratulating the members.

Johnson’s introductory speech noted that when ITU first started work in the field people were sceptical about the link between ICTs and climate change. He noted that ITU’s many initiatives have helped to raise awareness of the issue to the extent that there is now widespread understanding of the power of ICTs to achieve reductions in greenhouse gas emissions across all industry sectors.

He cited CO2 savings of some 108 tonnes in 2007, as consequence of distributing ITU-T standards (ITU-T Recommendations) online compared to on paper as an example of how the secretariat is working to become greener.

Johnson also announced that ITU is working with Ghana to develop a country assessment on how ICTs can help to combat climate change in accordance with UNFCCC guidelines.

Kevin Grose of UNFCCC which holds its COP16 meeting in Cancun, Mexico in December gave his remote presentation focusing in part on the need for mitigation actions to be reflected in the developing world. He highlighted accounting standards, partnerships and technology transfer as necessary to boost the ICT industry’s efforts to green itself and help towards general GHG mitigation.

ITU will participate in various activities at COP16, including organizing a side event with UNIDO, UNDESA, and WIPO; speaking at a side-event organized by WMO, UN-Habitat and WHO. In addition, the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) is organizing a Tech Fair to be held in Cancun (5-8 December) in which ITU will participate.

Chae-Sub Lee of ITU-T’s Future Networks Study Group (Study Group 13) showed how next generation networks (NGNs) being deployed around the world are more energy efficient – by an estimated 40 per cent – than previous public switched telephone networks (PSTNs).

The UAE has been re-elected on the International Telecommunications Union’s Council to hold the position on the policy-making body for the next four years at the 18th ITU Plenipotentiary Conference at Guadalajara in Mexico.

The UAE was re-nominated to the policy-making body last month and the re-election took place last week.

The body sets the Union's general policies, adopts four-year strategic and financial plans for the three main sectors of the ITU (Radio-communications, Standardization and Development) and elects the ITU management team.

The last Plenipotentiary conference was held in the Turkish city of Antalya in 2006, where the UAE was elected for the membership of the ITU Council for the first time. The ITU council comprises 46 countries from the 192 member states of the International Telecommunication Union.

The successful election of the UAE came as a result of the great efforts made by the UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), said a statement.

“This endeavour reflects the international community's confidence in the UAE, highlighting the efficient contributions the UAE has made during international forums and organizations affiliated with telecommunications and information,” said a statement.

Global National Happiness rather than Gross Domestic Product as key indicator

H.E. Mr Lyonpo Nandalal Rai,Bhutan's Minister of Information & Communications, talks of why their Gross Happiness Index was conceived, how it is measured and it's link to the national development programme: http://bit.ly/9mTs9f

Conference wraps up elections having elected members to the Radio Regulations Board and Member States to serve on the ITU Council for the next four years

On 11 October 2010, the Guadalajara Conference elected members of the Radio Regulations Board (RRB), an important body in ITU, as well as Member States to serve on the Council for the next four years. These elections conclude one of the key agenda items of the Guadalajara Conference.

Ghana's Minister of Communications asks for a rethink of dumping 2nd-hand technology in the underdeveloped world

H.E. Mr Haruna Iddrisu (MP), Minister of Communications talks of the negative impacts of dumping redundant equipment in developing countries and asks for technology that is sent to be appropropriate and effective. Dealing with cybercrime in Ghana and across borders also discussed: http://bit.ly/9mTs9f

Conference elects François Rancy of France as Director of the Radiocommunication Bureau and Brahima Sanou of Burkina Faso as Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau

On Friday evening (8 October 2010), the conference completed the elections for ITU’s five top jobs. This issue of the Highlights gives the election results of the two posts, for which the first round of voting started on 7 October 2010 - the post of Director of the Radiocommunication Bureau (BR) and the post of Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) (see also Issue No.4 of the Highlights).

Connecting the Unconnected: ITU SG talks to Bolivian school children through SATMEX

ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré communicated a personal message to schoolchildren in a remote location high in the Bolivian Andes through a satellite link powered by SATMEX. Using the Ku band transmitter of the SATMEX 6 satellite, the SG emphasized the importance of connectivity to social and economic development of all communities, no matter how remote.

SATMEX CEO Patricio Northland is a strong proponent of 'connecting the unconnected' right across the entire Latin American continent. Under his the leadership, SATMEX has been partnering with ITU’s Radiocommunication and Development Sectors to help connect isolated schools and communities, offering broadband access and social applications like e-health and e-government.

Elections got under way on 7 October 2010, with the conference re-electing Dr Hamadoun Touré as Secretary-General of ITU; Houlin Zhao as Deputy Secretary-General; and Malcolm Johnson as Director of the Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB). All three were first elected to these posts at the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in Antalya, Turkey, in November 2006 and took office on 1 January 2007.

Elections will continue on 8 October for the other two top posts of Director of the Radiocommunication Bureau (BR) and of Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT). Both posts have three contenders as follows: Fabio Leite (Brazil); François Rancy (France) and Dr Veena Rawat (Canada). Contenders for the post of BDT Director are: Sami Al Basheer Al Morshid (Saudi Arabia), who holds the post since 2007; Héctor Olavarría-Tapia (Mexico); and Brahima Sanou (Burkina Faso).

Addiction counsellors have told Newsbeat they're seeing more cases of people worried about being hooked on playing video games. There are now calls for the gaming industry to offer more support to people who can't switch off. Technology or computer addiction isn't officially recognised as a clinical condition. But the group representing games companies admits there needs to be more research into the problem.

"Most of the people that are getting into difficulties tend to be in their teenage years and early 20s. "As that generation moves through and others come on behind, I think the problem is going to get bigger."

500 million users worldwide and still growing, Facebook is now ubiquitous. Because of its popularity, minors have jumped onto the social media bandwagon, too, and they use networking the same way adults do--to share pictures, connect with friends, organize events, and play social games. And that can be a problem.

For the most part, Facebook provides a fun and safe way for users of all ages to communicate with their pals. But because kids and teens are, well, kids and teens, they're the ones most at risk of falling victim to the dangers of Facebook. With a bit of strategic parental guidance, you can educate your kids about the potential hazards of social media and give them the tools they need to protect themselves from online predators, guard their personal information, preserve their online reputation, and avoid suspicious downloads that could harm your PC.

On 6 October 2010, the conference approved the report of the Council on the activities of the Union for the period 2007-2010 (see Document PP-10/20). This report gives an overview of the main activities of the Union since the last Plenipotentiary Conference in Antalya in 2006, and summarizes progress in the implementation of the Strategic Plan for the years 2008-2011.

ITU’s main sources of income are the contributions from its Member States, Sector Members and Associates, made under a free choice system. A key task for the Plenipotentiary Conference in Guadalajara is to approve ITU’s Financial Plan for 2012-2015, covering two biennial budget periods. Fundamental to the preparation of the Financial Plan is the determination in Swiss Francs of the contributory unit payable by Member States. At its annual session in April 2010, the Council fixed the provisional amount of the contributory unit at CHF 318 000 (or zero nominal growth) for the period 2012–2015.

Addressing the Plenary on Tuesday morning, ITU Secretary-General, proposed that the amount of the contributory unit should be fixed at CHF 318 000, maintaining a status quo. “I would like to ensure that we leave this Plenipotentiary Conference with a balanced financial Plan. The key to a robust financial Plan is a realistic revenue forecast,” Dr Touré stressed. I believe that we can here and now take the decision to set the definitive upper limit, in order to facilitate our ability to forecast revenue for the period 2012 – 2015,” Dr Touré added.

FCC announces WISENET, a new online community for professional women in ICT

A new online community for professional women in ICT: http://www.fcc.gov/ib/wisenet/data/ announced by the US Federal Communications Commission at the Women’s Breakfast held during the Plenipotentiary Conference.

It was a moment of pride for ITU as Mexico’s President Felipe Calderón Hinojosaopened the Union’s 18th Plenipotentiary Conference on Monday, 4 October 2010. Some 2400 participants from 190 Member States, Sector Members and observer organizations, including over 80 ministers, 40 deputy ministers, and 40 ambassadorsattended the opening ceremony at the Guadalajara EXPO Center. The conference kicked off with a video entitled “Mexico in your Senses”, taking participants on a fascinating virtual tour of a fabulous country...

Global event underlines importance of ICTs as tool for social and economic progress for all

Guadalajara, Mexico, 4 October 2010 - ITU’s 18th Plenipotentiary Conference opened with a call by ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré for delegates to be “bold and visionary” in reaching agreements that will provide a sound platform for the development of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and services for the decade ahead.

ITU’s Plenipotentiary is the quadrennial global conference that decides strategy for ITU, the UN agency for ICTs responsible for allocating global radio spectrum, creating the technical standards that fuel all ICT networks, and developing and implementing strategies to bridge the ‘digital divide’.

Topics such as cybersecurity, Internet addressing, the International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs), broadband access and ICTs and climate change will be high on the conference agenda.

Dr Touré urged delegates to “imagine, to innovate, and to create a bright, long-term future for the ICT sector.”

“I cannot over-emphasize the importance of the work we will undertake here in Guadalajara,” he said. “We are here to shape the future. Not just the future of the ITU, but the future of the ICT sector − which now influences every other business sector worldwide, and which now reaches into the lives of almost everyone on the planet. And the future − to quote the great Mahatma Gandhi − depends on what we do in the present.”

The event, which is taking place at the Guadalajara Expo centre from 4-22 October, is hosted by Mexico’s Ministry of Communications and Transport. It will welcome around 2,000 participants from some 190 ITU Member States, Sector Members and observer organizations, including over 80 Ministers, 40 Deputy Ministers, and 40 ambassadors.

Host city Guadalajara treated PP-10 delegates to a Mexican extravaganza at the opening night cocktail reception on Monday 4 October. The city transformed the park area next to The Arches monument into an outdoor salon featuring living dioramas of tequila making, a sensory tunnel taking guests on a virtual voyage through Jalisco state, and the chance to sample local food, beer, tequila, and - naturalmente - margharitas! More than 1,000 delegates were beguiled by the balmy weather, an arresting Mexican music and dance spectacle and a stunning light show, topped off by a firework display culminating in a shower of Mexico’s national colours. Not to mention the world’s most charming and friendly team of waiters and young support staff, who bent over backwards to make sure everyone had a wonderful time.

The Minister of Communications, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, has called on the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to critically consider ways of preventing developed countries from dumping e-waste in developing countries such as Ghana.

According to him, with the advent of digital broadcasting, there was the likelihood of such rich countries shipping their analogue television sets to the developing countries to aggravate the already precarious situation as far as the dumping of used computers among others is concerned.

Mr Iddrisu, who is also the immediate past President of the ITU Council, made the call in a contribution to discussions at the last meeting of the 2010 council meeting to finally close the session.

The call comes at a time when reports from the market already indicate a growing number of used television sets hitting the market from Europe and America at rock bottom prices following their migration from analogue to digital broadcasting by the close of 2015...

Mexico’s President Felipe Calderón will open the 18th ITU Plenipotentiary Conference joined by the Minister of Communication & Transport, Mr Juan Francisco Molinar, and the Governor of the State of Jalisco, Mr Emilio González, alongside ITU’s five elected officials and the Mayor of Guadalajara city, Mr Jorge Aristóteles Sandoval...http://bit.ly/9jbRif

Group recommends joint NATO-Russia 'cyber' war games Rules of engagement in the digital age

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Russia should undertake joint information-warfare exercises so the two countries can better protect critical digital infrastructure, policy wonks at an international group said.

The proposal, which was included in a32-page report released Wednesday by the EastWest Institute, would help the US and Russia achieve mutual goals in much the way that previous collaborations in the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) have, its authors argued.

The GSMA and NTT DOCOMO's Mobile Society Research Institute (MSRI) recently announced the details of a comparative study into the use of mobile phones by children in six countries (Japan, Korea, China, India, Mexico and Cyprus) and the effect that this has on them. Approximately 6,000 pairs of respondents were interviewed, each consisting of a child aged between eight and 18 and his or her parent or guardian.

Sometimes it's a story of a grown woman who has chosen prostitution as a path to a better life. More often, it's a story of a woman being forced to sell her body by a pimp. And then there are the children, and the mothers that miss them.

"They told me to look on Craigslist and it almost blew my mind," the mother of one missing 12-year-old told CNN. "She was there with a wig on. She was there in a purple negligee. The same day the woman spoke to CNN, her daughter was rescued by police at a seedy hotel near Washington where she was being sold for sex. And she's not alone. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's website contains thousands of posters of missing children. Many are girls, classified as "endangered runaways," and the center says more than fifty of them have been pushed into the sex trade. But that's just a snapshot, a tiny indicator of the true scale of the problem.

ITU Telecom launches World 2011: A brand new networking event for the global ICT community

When everyone in the world is your customer, you can't go it alone...

ITU Telecom World 2011is much more than a talking shop, or an exhibition. It's a forum for change. It's a place where the world's telecommunications leaders come together to map out and shape the future of the industry, to make the right decisions with significant impacts on our world.

ITU Telecom World 2011 is attended by governments, industry leaders and regulators. Through the many close networking opportunities we offer, you can influence and shape the dynamic world of ICT & telecommunications. No other event offers this opportunity.

ITU and WIPO event on ICTs and Intellectual Property for Mitigating Climate change

ITU and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) have announced this week that they will co-organize a side event at the next UN Climate Change Conference, which will be held in Tianjin, China, from Monday 4 to Saturday, October 2010.

The event “The Effective Use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and the Intellectual Property (IP) System for Mitigating Climate Change”, which will take place on Thursday 7th October 2010,will provide a platform where top decision-makers from governments, and experts from international organizations and the private sector can debate the potential role and impact that ICTs and the IP system can have in promoting innovation and the evolution of new technologies, and encourage/advocate broader access to those technologies for the purpose of preventing further climate change.

Leo Hickman and the Guardian deserve to be congratulated for drawing attention to the emergence of a whole raft of internet-based personal location services (How I became a Foursquare cyberstalker, G2, 23 July). As Hickman showed, this new breed of online applications has the potential to be truly spooky.

Anyone collecting or broadcasting data about someone else's physical whereabouts should be obliged to observe the very highest standards of data security, yet Hickman's piece reveals some extremely slipshod work. However, the otherwise excellent story overlooked one angle. Because every location service I know of, including Foursquare, is paid for by advertising it means the apps are free to the end user, available for download by anyone who can click a mouse. That includes children. Ofcom's research has shown that around one in five children between the ages of eight and 12 are already getting away with lying about their age to create profiles on Facebook, MySpace or Bebo. Can we look forward to one in five children blithely linking location services to their social networking profiles, adding yet another and qualitatively new layer of risk? I suspect other stalkers who will surely follow in Hickman's steps will not have the same benign intent.

Just because a thing becomes technically possible it does not mean every online business should stampede towards it, and indeed some are not doing so. More credit to them. There is or ought to be an ethical dimension to business. Google and Yahoo should give a lead and immediately drop their personal location products (Latitude and FireEagle) and promise not to reintroduce them until they have a way of keeping kids off the premises.

Washington (CNN)-- A computer hacker responsible for creating and operating a massive scam that infected as many as 12 million computers worldwide has been identified and arrested, authorities said Wednesday.

The FBI said in a news statement a 23-year-old Slovene known as "Iserdo" was arrested last week for his role in a cyber scam that stole passwords from websites and financial institutions. Authorities believe the Slovenian citizen is responsible for creating and selling the Mariposa botnet.

Botnets are a network of computers infected with a malicious kind of robot software which allow remote access, often without the owner's knowledge.

GSMA and NTT DOCOMO Announce the Findings of 2010 Study on Children and Mobile Phone Use

The GSMA and NTT DOCOMO's Mobile Society Research Institute (MSRI) recently announced the details of a comparative study into the use of mobile phones by children in six countries (Japan, Korea, China, India, Mexico and Cyprus) and the effect that this has on them. Approximately 6,000 pairs of respondents were interviewed, each consisting of a child aged between eight and 18 and his or her parent or guardian.

International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber Threats (IMPACT) received double honours from (ISC)²’s fourth annual Asia-Pacific Information Security Leadership Achievements (ISLA) Program for its efforts to build capacity against cyber threats among partner countries especially in the developing nations.

Mr. Philip Victor, Director, Training, Skills Development and Outreach, IMPACT has been selected as an Honouree in the Senior Information Security Professional category and the contribution of Mr. Sivanathan Subramaniam, Manager, GRC Profressional Services, IMPACT has been recognised in the Information Security Practitioner category.

The award giving ceremony will take place at the ISLA Gala Dinner and Ceremony on the evening of 26th July 2010, held at The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia in Singapore.

Girl Scout Testifies Before Congressional Panel on Dangers of Cyberbullying

[US] Girl Scout Dominique Napolitano testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Healthy Families and Communities Subcommittee on the issue of cyberbullying on Thursday, June 24, providing legislators a teenager's perspective on the increasingly widespread practice.

"Cyberbullying is not just a phase or behavior in which kids will be kids," Napolitano told the panel chaired by U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY). "Cyberbullying poses serious consequences to the health and safety of all children."

Dominique was among a core group of Girl Scouts who helped develop LMK (http://lmk.girlscouts.org), a leading online safety Web site developed by Girl Scouts in collaboration with Microsoft's Windows division. The site is unique because it is designed to cover such topics as cyberbullying, online sexual predators and cybersecurity from the perspective of young people. Twenty-three Girl Scouts working with Internet safety expert Parry Aftab have developed the online safety tips and advice for parents and young boys and girls.

International experts seek to identify common responses to the global challenge of cyber crime

CTO Conference, London on 17-18 June 2010 - A two-day international forum on Cybersecurity- aimed to identify, outline and set in motion effective to crimes that take place in the cyber world. The forum was organised by the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) in conjunction with the UK Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the UK Cabinet Office of Cyber Security (OCS).

At the conference , ITU Global Cybersecurity Agenda (GCA) - A Framework for International Cooperation in Cybersecurity, Initiative was presented and very much welcomed by CTO participants.

Delivering the key note address, Rt Hon Baroness Pauline Neville-Jones, Minister of State for Security and Counter-Terrorism, spoke of her commitment to tackling the complex issues surrounding cyber security, including Cyber-crime and Cyber-espionage. She also stressed the critical importance of international cooperation by like-minded countries and the vital role of International organisations such as the UN-sponsored Internet Governance Forum, the International Telecommunications Union and the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation itself.

Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, the Chief Executive Office of the CTO echoed these sentiments and added that the CTO is always keen to collaborate with sister agencies such as ITU in order to develop the capacity of its members to manage and develop their ICT sectors. ICT enabling governance and society brings along with it associated risks requiring innovative strategies of which Cybersecurity is a key element. That was the primary reason for the CTO to organise this forum and the number of participants and the engagement of organsiations from both public and private sectors justifies the CTO's decision to undertake the organising of such an event.

The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein, Special Agent in Charge Richard A. McFeely of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Chief James W. Johnson of the Baltimore County Police Department; and Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.

Internet security firm Sophos has warned Facebook users to be on the alert for a scam which sends a spam message to all of their friends on the social network. Sophos, in a pair of blog posts late Monday, said "hundreds of thousands" of Facebook users have fallen for the scam which it dubbed "likejacking." It said some Facebook users had received a message such as "This man takes a picture of himself EVERYDAY for 8 YEARS!!" and were encouraged to click on a link. "This of course posts a message to your newsfeed, your friends see it and click on it, and so it spreads," Sophos said.

That followed a similar scam that spread on Facebook the week before involving a fake posting tagged as the "sexiest video ever," according to Sophos.

Thousands of people have paid tribute on Facebook to an Australian teenager allegedly lured to her death by a man she met on the social networking site. The body of Nona Belomesoff was found two days after she went on a trip with the man, who told her they were going to rescue injured animals, police say. A 20-year-old man has been charged with Ms Belomesoff's murder at a creek south of Sydney.

Detectives say the case reinforces the need for vigilance when using Facebook. Ms Belomesoff, 18, is believed to have befriended Christopher James Dannevig, who police say set up a fake Facebook profile in which he claimed to work for an animal welfare group.

The term "cyberwar" has been bandied about in recent years as a catchall term for the hackers stealing credit card numbers or spreading spam, but also much more nefarious schemes such as breaking into a electricity grid. At a recent cybersecurity conference, one Microsoft security executive said we might need global rules on how to fight such threats.

Scott Charney, vice president of Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing Group, spoke at the Worldwide Cybersecurity Summit in Dallas last week and said there needs to be a distinction between cybercriminals merely stealing money and cyberwar, possibly conducted by nation-states, that is aimed at crippling a target in another country, such as a power grid or an oil pipeline. An Associated Press report on the conference, which was picked up by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper, quotes Charney as saying that international treaties designed to fight cyberwar are difficult to establish because of the murky nature of what "cyberwar" is.

The United Nations last month rejected a Russian proposal for a new cybercrime treaty, leaving in place a 2001 treaty that Russia opposes because it gives foreign governments too much leeway to pursue cybercriminals across borders.

"Lots of times, there's confusion in these treaty negotiations because of lack of clarity about which problems they're trying to solve," Charney said.

In a paper that accompanied his talk, Charney also wrote that if the concern is that countries need to brace for a cybersecurity "Pearl Harbor," that it needs to be made clear on what type of attacks governments can respond. "If the concern is an electronic Pearl Harbor, perhaps part of the response is an electronic `Geneva Convention' that protects the rights of noncombatants."

The notion of an electronic Pearl Harbor has come up before on this blog. I wrote about it after attending the RSA Conference 2010 in San Francisco in March. There a panel of cybersecurity experts warned that a cyberattack could occur that could cripple U.S. infrastructure if we're not prepared for it. Richard Clarke, a national security advisor to the previous three U.S. presidents, also proposed a cyber security treaty, but lumped together criminal cyber attacks and state-sponsored attacks.

eNACSO launches its Agenda for Action at the international conference “Protecting Children Online” on 6th May 2010. The eNACSO Agenda for Action includes recommendations to governments, industry and other stakeholders on how to create a safer online environment for children and young people.

Purveyors of fake anti-virus or “scareware” programs have aggressively stepped up their game to evade detection by legitimate anti-virus programs, according to new data from Google.

In a report being released today, Google said that between January 2009 and the end of January 2010, its malware detection infrastructure found some 11,000 malicious or hacked Web pages that attempted to foist fake anti-virus on visitors. The search giant discovered that as 2009 wore on, scareware peddlers dramatically increased both the number of unique strains of malware designed to install fake anti-virus as well as the frequency with which they deployed hacked or malicious sites set up to force the software on visitors.

Fake anti-virus attacks use misleading pop-ups and videos to scare users into thinking their computers are infected and offer a free download to scan for malware. The bogus scanning programs then claim to find oodles of infected files, and victims who fall for the ruse often are compelled to register the fake anti-virus software for a fee in order to make the incessant malware warnings disappear. Worse still, fake anti-virus programs frequently are bundled with other malware. What’s more, victims end up handing their credit or debit card information over to the people most likely to defraud them.

In a nutshell, the proposed program's private sector auditors or the FCC would periodically run security evaluations of various telecommunications services. Companies that passed the program's muster could then market their networks as FCC cyber security compliant.

It's not hard to make a pitch for these kind of programs, given all the cybersecurity horror stories. The agency's Notice outlines what's at stake:

"In today’s interconnected world, an increasingly greater amount of the nation’s daily business depends on our rapidly growing broadband communications infrastructure. Banking, investment and commercial interests routinely rely on the durability and security of IP-based networks to move capital and to track goods and services around the globe. To put this development in perspective, while our nation’s total GDP was just over $14T last year, two banks in New York move over $7T per day in transactions. . . ."

But the open-ended questions that the FCC asks in its inquiry suggest that the Commission knows that the case for this kind of project isn't open and shut. Would the program "create a significant incentive for providers to increase the security of their systems and improve their cybersecurity practices?" the NOI asks. And it also wonders if "public knowledge of providers' cybersecurity practices would contribute to broader implementation by industry."

Another question the FCC might want to ask is, should individual government agencies coordinate this kind of activity, or should a broader cross-industry certification program be established? The probe comes in tandem with an inquiry on the survivability of the nation's broadband networks.

Police hunting a hacker who had attacked a US school's systems found themselves cornering a "very intelligent" 9 year old instead, it has emerged. When passwords for teachers at Spring Hill Elementary, Virginia, were changed without authorisation the school board initially thought a hacker had broken into the school district's Blackboard system. Police were called in to investigate in mid-March and were quickly able to trace the incident back to a PC at the home of a 9 year-old school student.

The youngster's mother was initially chief suspect in the hack but after speaking to her and and her son police came to the surprising conclusion that they were dealing with a 'kindergarden' hacker.

Is it cyberbullying if kids post mean comments and then say they were “just joking”? Is it wrong for a boy to pressure his girlfriend to send racy text messages? For teenagers, these questions don’t necessarily have clear answers. Associated Press MTV is trying to get teens themselves to support each other in standing up to behavior that crosses over into “digital abuse” — use of technologies such as texting and social networking to bully, harass and intimidate people. The network introduced a new online tool called Over the Line this week that allows young people to post about their problem and have peers say whether the behavior is acceptable. The posts and comments are moderated, to make sure bullying doesn’t become a problem in the tool itself.

The report, from researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Pennsylvania, is among the first quantitative studies looking at young people's attitudes toward privacy as government officials and corporate executives alike increasingly grapple with such issues.

Among the findings:

• Most people — 86 percent — believe that anyone who posts a photo or video of them on the Internet should get their permission first, even if that photo was taken in public. Among young adults 18 to 24, 84 percent agreed — not far from the 90 percent among those 45 to 54.

• Forty percent of adults ages 18 to 24 believe executives should face jail time if their company uses someone's personal information illegally — the same as the response among those 35 to 44 years old.

Is it any easier to put the proper measures in place to ensure your child's security since you already have an expertise in this area? Or do you go overboard because of you are hyperattuned to risk? And what is the right balance of freedom and guidance to provide for kids? Turns out it was tricky issue before social networking, and remains tricky now. Here are views and strategies collected from an array of security professionals.

The US President directed a 60-day, comprehensive, “clean-slate” review to assess U.S. policies and structures for cybersecurity. Cybersecurity policy includes strategy, policy, and standards regarding the security of and operations in cyberspace, and encompasses the full range of threat reduction, vulnerability reduction, deterrence, international engagement, incident response, resiliency, and recovery policies and activities, including computer network operations, information assurance, law enforcement, diplomacy, military, and intelligence missions as they relate to the security and stability of the global information and communications infrastructure.

The President’s cybersecurity policy official should, working with departments and agencies, strengthen and integrate interagency processes to formulate and coordinate international cybersecurity-related positions. In addition, the Federal government—continuing the long-term history of collaboration with the private sector—should develop a proactive engagement plan for use with international standards bodies. This would include taking stock of current policies and coordinating the development, refinement, or reaffirmation of positions to ensure that the full range of cybersecurity-related economic, national security, public safety, and privacy interests are taken into account.

Congress, back this week from spring break, isn't wasting time tackling some key cybersecurity and IT security-related initiatives.

Within the next few weeks, Congressional committees will hold sessions to tackle some of the hottest infosec-related items, including the confirmation hearing on Army Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander to be military cyber commander, markup sessions on bills to fund cybersecurity research and development and realign the National Institute of Standards and Technology's laboratories and a hearing on combating cyber crime and identity theft.

Alexander Confirmation Hearing

Thursday's Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing comes nearly 10 months after Alexander was nominated by President Obama to be the first military cyber commander. If confirmed, he would retain his current job, director of the National Security Agency, and be promoted to full general. No one is suggesting that Alexander won't be confirmed, but concerns have been raised that having the same officer overseeing the cyber command and NSA poses potential conflicts: Should the top spy also be the general in charge of protecting the computer systems and networks employed to support the nation's warfighters?

Indeed, it's been questions about that dual role that has delayed the confirmation process. As we reported last month, the committee sent a questionnaire to Alexander on March 6 seeking answers about how he would balance the two jobs. Though the NSA is a DoD agency, it works with civilian agencies to secure federal IT, raising additional concerns about potential military involvement in civilian matters. "They are working through some of the hard problems and that is what the reason for the delay is," James Lewis, senior fellow at the Center for International and Strategic Studies and expert on government and military cybersecurity policy, told GovInfoSecurity.com.

The case of a teenager in Massachusetts who killed herself after a relentless, months-long bullying campaign shows how the common schoolyard behavior is evolving in dangerous new ways online.

Six students face felony charges in the death of Phoebe Prince, 15, who hanged herself in January after being subjected to verbal assault and threats of physical harm. Some harassment occurred online on Facebook, in text messages and in other high-tech forms, a contemporary development in the age-old practice, experts said.

A British child protection agency said it has pressed Facebook to add "panic buttons" to its pages after the murder of a teenager was linked to the site. Jim Gamble, chief executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP), said the social networking giant did not agree to his demands outright at a meeting in Washington but he felt they were moving in the right direction. Speaking after a four-hour meeting Monday, Gamble said Facebook was close to "doing the right thing" but urged the website to turn "words into action."

Calls have since grown for the inclusion of the buttons -- which allow youngsters who feel threatened online to quickly contact a number of sources of help, such as CEOP or anti-bullying helplines. Politicians, police and anti-bullying groups have voiced outrage that the online giant will not bow to demands to include the system.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) today introduced legislation that will strengthen the ability of the United States to develop a clear and coordinated strategy for international cyberspace and cybersecurity policy. The bill will create the framework for coordinating our efforts with other countries to defend against cyberattacks that threaten our power stations, telecommunications systems and financial markets.

The International Cyberspace and Cybersecurity Coordination Act of 2010 will authorize the creation of a senior coordinator at the State Department, with the rank and status of Ambassador at Large. This person will be the principal advisor to the Secretary of State on international cyberspace and cybersecurity issues. The coordinator will provide strategic direction for United States government policy and programs aimed at addressing cyberspace and cybersecurity issues overseas. The bill will ensure the Administration develops a clear and coordinated strategy for international cyber engagement, including considering the utility of negotiating a multilateral framework that would provide internationally acceptable principles to mitigate cyberwarfare.

"Just as the physical safety of America is under constant threat from those who would do us harm, we are also engaged in a battle over the control of information in cyberspace and need to build better defenses against potential attacks on our infrastructure," said Chairman Kerry. "We must do everything we can to forestall the possibility of cyberwarfare and create a multilateral framework that will persuade countries to cooperate on pressing cyber issues. This bill is the first step to better organize U.S. efforts to develop a coordinated strategic approach to international cyberspace and cybersecurity issues by designating a single diplomat responsible for U.S. cyber policy overseas."

The world's leading Internet engineers see many surprising trends occurring under the covers of this complex network environment. Among their findings are the evolution of silicon cockroaches — tiny, mobile, unattended wireless devices — and "dirty" Internet address space that can't be used by network operators. Here are a few eye-openers about what’s really going on in the Internet infrastructure that were discussed at a meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) held in Anaheim last week.

Watch out for silicon cockroaches. Network operators should prepare for an infestation of silicon cockroaches, a term used to describe Internet-connected devices such as mobile sensors, bio-medical systems and RFID-powered asset trackers that operate without human administration. Aaron Falk, chair of the Internet Research Task Force, listed silicon cockroaches as a key factor in the Internet becoming a network of things, rather than a network of computers, in the future. Falk said 15 billion devices could be hooked up to the Internet by 2015, a figure that will be "orders of magnitude bigger" than the number of Internet-connected people. Silicon cockroaches pose several threats to network operators, including naming, security and management headaches that require additional research, Falk said.

A study conducted by RIPE Labs indicates that about 1.89% of spam are received over IPv6.

"With the increased deployment of IPv6, we were curious to see how much the amount of spam sent over IPv6 increases. We looked at the e-mail system of the RIPE NCC and produced some statistics that could be seen as an indication for the overall trend of spam sent over IPv6," says RIPE in a blog post explaining the analysis. Group also notes that the study was based on one week’s worth of data and that it excluded messages already rejected by blacklisting and greylisting.

The expansion of internet domain names as proposed is worrying to trademark owners as a significant number cybersquatting cases continue to be filed in the World Intellectual Property Organization dispute resolution system, WIPO said this week. Meanwhile internet intermediaries should play a bigger role in the fight against trademark infringement, WIPO officials said.

Complaints filed with the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) in 2009 decreased by 9.5 percent compared to the previous year. WIPO is the recipient of over half of global internet domain dispute cases, it said. However, complaints filed at WIPO in 2009, though down, covered “the highest number of individual domain names in a given year,” as opposed to collective filings, WIPO Director General Francis Gurry said during an 18 March press conference at the United Nations.

In a bid to cut down on fraud and inappropriate content, the organization responsible for administering Russia's .ru top-level domain names is tightening its procedures.

Starting April 1, anyone who registers a .ru domain will need to provide a copy of their passport or, for businesses, legal registration papers. Right now, domains can be set up with no verification - a practice that has allowed scammers to quickly set up .ru domains under bogus names. The changes will help Russia align its rules with international best practices, said Olga Ermakova, informational projects manager with the Coordination Center for the .ru top-level domain, in an e-mail interview. The .ru administrators care about the "cleanness" of the domain, she added. "We don't need negative content, and such content is often [created] by unknown users."

Loopholes in the domain name system help spammers, scammers and operators of pornographic Web sites to avoid detection on the Internet by concealing their identity. Criminals often play a cat-and-mouse game with law enforcement and security experts, popping up on different domains as soon as their malicious servers are identified.

Criminals in eastern Europe have used .ru domains for a while, registering domain names under fake identities and using them to send spam or set up command-and-control servers to send instructions to networks of hacked computers. With the new domain registration requirements, it will be more difficult for criminals to continue with business as usual. At the very least, the requirement that registrants must submit paper documents will make setting up domains a more costly and time-consuming process.

Researchers at RSA have identified the network framework that endows some of the worlds most notorious botnets with always-on connections that are virtually immune from takedowns.

At the network's heart are the servers that shepherd tens of thousands of infected PCs so they continue to send spam, spread malware, and stay updated with the latest bot software. By maintaining multiple conduits between these master control channels and the outside world, malware gangs are able to create highly redundant networks that are extremely difficult for authorities and whitehats to shut down.

"What they've worked really hard to do for themselves is build a spiderweb of connections to the outer ring if the outer ring were the internet at large," Sean Brady, manager of RSA's identity protection and verification group, told The Register. "As you start picking off threads, they work to reroute, to crawl along different threads."

Egypt has begun enforcing a ban on international calls made through mobile internet connections, the head of the telcoms regulator told Reuters on Tuesday, potentially boosting voice revenues at landline monopoly Telecom Egypt. The ban will apply to the three mobile operators in Egypt -- Mobinil, Etisalat Egypt and Vodafone Egypt -- who offer internet access for computers via USB and other mobile modems, as well as via mobile phone.

"The ban is on Skype on mobile internet, not on fixed, and this is due to the fact it is against the law since it bypasses the legal gateway," said Amr Badawy, the executive president of the National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (NTRA).

The internet is among a record 237 individuals and organisations nominated for this year's Nobel Peace Prize.

The number of nominations surpasses last year's record of 205 nominations. The internet's nomination has been championed by the Italian version of Wired magazine for helping advance "dialogue, debate and consensus". The director of the Nobel Institute, Geir Lundestad, told BBC News that the organisation had received "thousands of nominations" for the coveted prize.

This Procurement Policy Note (PPN) addresses the requirement for Departments (including their agencies, offices and NDPBs) to ensure that when specifying for internet related services they include a requirement to block access to web pages depicting child sexual abuse.

To coincide with Safer Internet Day, the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) has launched its new public awareness campaign: ‘Click Clever, Click Safe’.

The campaign highlights a new online green cross code: ‘Zip it, Block it, Flag it’ to help parents, children and young people understand the behaviours that will enable them to enjoy the internet safely. To help children enjoy the internet safely, the Code is designed to act as an everyday reminder of simple good behaviours, to help children and young people avoid common risks online as well as to help parents talk to your children about the internet.

Alan Johnson said UK and US authorities were working on ways to flag up when a convicted sex offender goes online. It follows the sentencing of Peter Chapman, 33, on Monday, to a minimum of 35 years for the kidnap and killing of Ashleigh Hall in Sedgefield in October. The sex offender contacted her via Facebook. The Lib Dems have also called for better internet monitoring.

Some 17,000 culture vultures registered to the UK's National Theatre website need to reset their passwords after the site was hacked.

The 20 February attack hit systems storing the logins of 17,000 (or around three per cent) of the 500,000 plus registered with the site. Only email, password, name and contact information was disclosed by the hack. Motives and perpetrators remain unidentified. A spokeswoman emphasised that database systems holding credit and debit card details were not affected by the hack. The NT has sent out email alerts (copy below) to affected customers on Monday apologising for the security snafu.

Germany's highest court on Tuesday overturned a law allowing authorities to retain data on telephone calls and e-mail traffic for help in tracking criminal networks.

A law ordering data on calls made from mobile or landline telephones and e-mail exchanges be retained for six months for possible use by criminal authorities violated Germans' constitutional right to private correspondence, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled. In its ruling, the court said the law failed to sufficiently balance the need for personal privacy against that for providing security.

The US government’s policy of leaving the Internet alone is over, according to Obama’s top official at the Department of Commerce.

Instead, an “Internet Policy 3.0” approach will see policy discussions between government agencies, foreign governments, and key Internet constituencies, according to Assistant Secretary Larry Strickling, with those discussions covering issues such as privacy, child protection, cybersecurity, copyright protection, and Internet governance.

The outcomes of such discussions will be “flexible” but may result in recommendations for legislation or regulation, Strickling said in a speech at the Media Institute in Washington this week. The new approach is a far cry from a US government that consciously decided not to intrude into the internet’s functioning and growth and in so doing allowed an academic network to turn into a global communications phenomenon.

Microsoft has won a court-issued take-down order against scores of domains associated with controlling the spam-spewing Waledac botnet.

The software giant's order allows the temporary cut-off of traffic to 277 Internet domains that form command and control nodes for the network of compromised machines. Infected (zombie) machines are programmed to regularly poll these control points for instructions and spam templates.

The .com domains, registered in China, will be sin-binned by VeriSign, at least temporarily decapitating the network. Microsoft estimates that Waledac was one of the 10 largest botnets in the US and a major distributor of spam for online (unlicensed) pharmacies, knock-off goods and other tat, as explained in a blog posting by its legal team.

"Waledac is estimated to have infected hundreds of thousands of computers around the world and, prior to this action, was believed to have the capacity to send over 1.5 billion spam emails per day. In a recent analysis, Microsoft found that between December 3-21, 2009, approximately 651 million spam emails attributable to Waledac were directed to Hotmail accounts alone, including offers and scams related to online pharmacies, imitation goods, jobs, penny stocks and more."

Shopping comparison site Foundem this week fired the opening shots in the coming Google antitrust battle, with a complaint to the European Commission and a filing with the US Federal Communications Commission accusing Google of posing "an immediate threat to competition and innovation." The US filing is in response to the FCC's net neutrality enquiry, and seeks to have search neutrality included in FCC rule-making.

German shopping site Ciao, which has been owned by Microsoft since 2008, and French legal search service ejustice.fr have also filed complaints with Europe. The data in the filing has also been passed to the Commission, Foundem co-founder Shivaun Raff told The Register. In it, with the help of data commissioned from ComScore, Foundem seeks to show that what Google calls "Universal Search" places Google services in prominent and preferential positions within its search results, giving the company an unassailable competitive advantage. "They're turning an ostensibly neutral search engine into an incredibly powerful marketing channel for their own services," said Raff.

A plan to create a specific area of the Internet for pornography has been given a reprieve by a distinguished panel of judges.

The panelists - who included a former International Court of Justice judge - told Internet overseeing body ICANN in a majority decision that it was wrong to reject an application for the top-level domain dot-xxx three years ago.

That decision made by ICANN’s Board in March 2007 was “not consistent with the application of neutral, objective, and fair documented policy,” the panel concluded. It also decided in favor of the company behind the dot-xxx application, ICM Registry, in three of the remaining four issues under dispute and ordered ICANN to pick up fees and expenses totaling $475,000. As a result of the panel’s declaration, the ICANN Board will now reconsider the dot-xxx application and decision at its meeting in Nairobi next month, opening the way for dot-xxx’s possible inclusion into the Internet’s “root.”

New domain name registrations in the fourth quarter of 2009 reached 3.7 million domain name registrations per month totaling close to 11 million new domain name registrations across all of the Top-Level Domains (TLDs) in the last quarter of 2009, according the latest Domain Name Brief by VeriSign. "The base of country code Top-Level Domain Names (ccTLDs) rose to 78.6 million domain names, a three percent increase quarter over quarter and a 10 percent increase year over year. In terms of total registrations, .com continues to have the highest base followed by .cn (China), .de (Germany), .net and .uk (United Kingdom)."

A digital attack against the UK causing even minor damage would have a "catastrophic" effect on public confidence in the government, GCHQ has privately warned Whitehall.

The Cheltenham spy agency's new Cyber Security Operations Centre (CSOC) makes the prediction in a document prepared for Cabinet Office and seen by The Register. Growing reliance on the internet to deliver public services will "quickly reach a point of no return", meaning "any interruption of broadband access becomes intolerable and will have serious impacts on the the economy and public well being", CSOC says.

"A successful cyber attack against public services would have a catastrophic impact on public confidence in the government, even if the actual damage caused by the attack were minimal," it adds.

.Info registry Afilias is asking ICANN to approve a plan to offer one and two character .info domain names for registration. As with other newer gTLDs, ICANN originally reserved all one and two character domains from being registered.

Afilias is modeling its plan after Neustar’s launch of one and two character .biz domain names. There will be a three step process:

1. Requests for Proposal, where anyone can submit a proposal for developing a particular name. Afilias will award domains to RFPs that meet its goal of broadening awareness of .info.

2. Auction of any domain not given during the RFP

3. Open registration

During Neustar’s one character auction, the top sale was e.biz for $66,001. Many other one character .biz domains sold for $5,000-$15,000. It is still running two character auctions, with most sales under $1,000. The biggest deal to come out of the RFP process was Overstock.com, which picked up O.biz.

Criminal hackers have penetrated the networks of almost 2,500 companies and government agencies in a coordinated campaign that began 18 months ago and continues to steal email passwords, login credentials, and other sensitive data to this day, a computer security company said.

The infections by a variant of the Zeus botnet began in late 2008 and have turned more than 74,000 PCs into remote spying platforms that have siphoned highly proprietary information out of at least 10 federal agencies and thousands of companies, according to research from NetWitness, a Herndon, Virginia-based network forensics firm. Many of the victims are Fortune 500 firms in the financial, energy, and high technology industries.

Google is in court later today New York to face critics of its agreement with US publishers to digitise the world's books.

Judge Denny Chin will hear evidence from 26 critics of the deal. These include Amazon and Microsoft, along with several publishers. France and Germany will also give evidence, the Beeb reports. The case is seen by some as granting Google an effective monopoly on the world's literature.

The search giant's massive book scanning scheme is also under investigation from Department of Justice and European regulators.

Computer experts from some 30 organizations worldwide have once again compiled a list of the 25 most dangerous programming errors along with a novel way to prevent them: by drafting contracts that hold developers responsible when bugs creep into applications.

The list for 2010 bears a striking resemblance to last year's list, which was the first time a broad cross section of the world's computer scientists reached formal agreement on the most common programming pitfalls. The effort is designed to shift attention to the underlying mistakes that allow vulnerabilities to happen in the first place.

An incredible 77 per cent of internet domains - nearly 90 million internet addresses - are registered with false, incomplete, or unverifiable information.

An extensive review of 1,419 representative domain names conducted by overseeing body ICANN, including direct contact with over 500 individual domain owners, produced some startling results (PDF). Example: only 23 per cent of domain registrations display the owner's correct name and physical address.

Worse, an extraordinary 29 per cent of domains are registered with patently false or suspicious information - a shady sign of online criminalty. The remaining 48 per cent of faulty registrations are in a grey area where people are either unaware or unwilling to hand over their identifying details.

Google has quietly turned on IPv6 support for its YouTube video streaming Web site, sending a spike of IPv6 traffic across the Internet that has continued from last Thursday until Monday. IPv6: The Essential Guide

Industry observers say YouTube appeared to be supporting IPv6 in production mode, as opposed to running a test of the next-generation Internet protocol.

"On Thursday, midday California time, we saw a large amount of inbound IPv6 traffic, which we knew came from Google," says Martin Levy, Director of IPv6 Strategy at Hurricane Electric, a Fremont, Calif., ISP that runs one of the world's largest IPv6 backbone networks.

"IPv6 traffic came into ISPs from all over the world when Google turned up its IPv6 traffic on YouTube," Levy says. "IPv6 is being supported at many different Google data centers. We're talking about a traffic spike that is 30-to-1 type ratios. In other words, 30 times more IPv6 traffic is coming out of Google's data centers than before."

Most country code top-level domains on the Internet represent areas with millions of people, such as .uk (United Kingdom), .ca (Canada), .de (Germany), .se (Sweden), and so on, but there a places where the population isn’t counted in the millions, or even thousands, that still have their very own top-level domain on the Internet. Some of them aren’t even inhabited.

IANA, the organization that administers the domain name system, bases its allocation of country code top-level domains on the standard country code list in ISO 3166-1 which defines codes for “the names of countries, dependent territories, and special areas of geographical interest.”

Scams which attempt to trick users into volunteering personal credentials in return for free pornography have moved over onto social networks.

More than nine out of ten (92 per cent) of such adult phishing scams recorded in January took place on social networking sites such as Facebook and Bebo, according to the latest monthly security report from Symantec. Once fraudsters have snaffled personal credentials, surfers are often redirected to sites punting scareware scams rather than smut.

Scareware scams more commonly rely on manipulating search engine results for search terms in the news, such as the death of an athlete practising for the luge event at the winter Olympics. These results are poisoned so that surfers looking for videos of this tragedy (as explained by Sophos here) are instead redirected to anti-virus scan scam portals, which warn of non-existent malware risks in a bid to trick users into buying worthless scamware.

The UK government has launched a specialist cyber-enforcement team and allocated extra funding for Trading Standards as part of a campaign designed to clamp down on online scams.

OFT figures suggest online scams claim 3 million UK marks every year and result in losses of £3.5bn. Approaches most often arrive in the form of scam emails. The government is investing £4.3m over three years in a bid to clamp down on this growing source of crime. The money will allow the training and appointment of specialist trading standards enforcers in every region of England and in Scotland and Wales and the establishment of local computer labs.

European Commission Calls On Social Networking Companies To Improve Child Safety Policies

50% of European teenagers give out personal information on the web – according to an EU study – which can remain online forever and can be seen by anybody. Today, Safer Internet Day, the European Commission is passing a message to teenagers: "Think before you post!" It welcomed actions to protect children using social networking websites taken by the 20 companies who signed the Safer Social Networking Principles last year (IP/09/232 ).

Most of these companies have empowered minors to tackle online risks by making it easier to change privacy settings, block users or delete unwanted comments and content. Yet more needs to be done to protect children online, the Commission says. Less than half of social networking companies (40%) make profiles of under-18 users visible only to their friends by default and only one third replied to user reports asking for help.

Persistent illegal downloaders face having their internet links disconnected under a secret trade deal being negotiated by developed nations this week, according to activists and industry groups.

Leaked drafts of the anti-counterfeiting trade agreement say the world’s biggest developed nations want internet service providers to be more responsible for the content they distribute – and even cut off repeat infringers of copyright legislation.

Analysts say the agreement, if ratified, would transform copyright law in the US and European Union. So-called “three strike” laws have been contentious in the US and EU, in spite of aggressive lobbying from copyright holders such as record companies and film studios for countries to adopt them in order to curb illegal downloading.

How many websites were added? How many emails were sent? How many Internet users were there? This post will answer all of those questions and many more. Prepare for information overload, but in a good way.

We have used a wide variety of sources from around the Web. A full list of source references is available at the bottom of the post for those interested. We here at Pingdom also did some additional calculations to get even more numbers to show you.

It is estimated that in three years time the addresses available for connecting to the Internet under the current protocol will be depleted. Faced with this situation, LACNIC is taking measures for supporting and promoting the adoption of IP version 6 within the region.

As a response to the forecasts prepared by several investigators indicating that by the year 2011 the central pool of version 4 (IPv4) Internet addresses could be completely depleted, LACNIC announces it is launching a regional campaign so that all the region's networks will be adapted to the new version 6 of the protocol (IPv6) before January 1st, 2011.

.ORG, The Public Interest Registry extends our deepest condolences to the millions of families, friends and neighbors affected by the horrific tragedy in Haiti. As we learn the extent of the earthquake's devastation and continue with emergency assistance, the need for our continued support and humanitarian efforts is critical. If you would like to make a donation or learn more about how you can help with the relief efforts, we recommend visiting the .ORG community, including sites such as http://www.redcross.org/, http://www.globalgiving.org/ and http://www.directrelief.org/.

Press release: ITU celebrates the Safer Internet Day 2010 with Save the Children and Telecom Italia

Safer Internet Day: institutions, social networks, companies and the voluntary sector, all working together on the “Use Your Head When Posting Online” Campaign.

From today: messages from “Absolute Zero” will be appearing on www.sicurinrete.it and www.itu.int/cop

The “Zero Assoluto” messages, advice and a video – also broadcast by channel La7 – to convince youngsters and adults to think twice before circulating personal pictures or posting suggestive photos

“More people know you than you would imagine. They look at your photos, they talk about you, and would like to meet you. Find out why ” This is the “headline board” message that has been circulating online the past few days through which promoters of the “Think before you post” campaign that will try to bring hundreds of thousands of young internet users to land at the www.sicurinrete.it web site. Here, the words of the “Zero Assoulto”, a video and key messages will invite those who “people” social networks to use their heads when posting online! That is, to think carefully before putting their or others’ privacy at risk by publishing online personal data and pictures, maybe even ones that are suggestive or alluring, as is the case with sexting , a phenomenon which has by now become quite widespread even among Italian adolescents.

The cause of all this commotion on the Net is the Safer Internet Day. It will be celebrated tomorrow, a day established by the European Commission as a part of the Safer Internet programme that aims to promote safe and responsible use of the Internet and new technologies by younger users. In Italy, Save the Children and Adiconsum jointly administer this programme.

In line with the ITU (International telecommunication Union) Child Online Protection Initiative goals, 19 are the actors who have joined together for the first time to launch, on this day, the Think before you post: the very ample “sign” shows – all side by side – institutions, social networks, companies and organizers from the voluntary sector, in fact all the principal actors, each with their own levels and functions, that are concerned with the Internet, new media and minors: the Ministry for Equal Opportunity, the Ministry for Economic Development, International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the National Centre for the fight against Child abuse images on the Internet run by the Postal and Communications Police, the Observatory for the fight against paedophilia and child pornography, the Protection of Privacy Watchdog, Save the Children, Adiconsum, the Italian Internet Provider Association (AIIP), Telecom Italia, Vodafone, Facebook, MySpace, Netlog, Virgilio, Google, Microsoft’s Windows Live, Skuola.net, and the La7 television channel.

New technologies have transformed internet users – and especially the youngest ones – into potential editors of information, pictures, films, etc. Photographs and videos can be shot and easily circulated by mobile phones, sent to a list of contacts, and loaded onto a blog or a social networking profile in no time.

Thanks to the possibility of posting personal pictures or information online offered by social networks, it has become much easier to trace a person through their photos, just as it is now easier to reconstruct his/her curriculum or aspects of his/her life. It’s also become possible to manage one’s online identity so as to be able to transform one’s self into a kind of “celebrity”.

All this can represent an opportunity for socialising, having fun, and even a means of forming new work relations. Many internet users, including many youngsters, do not always realise that whatever is published online, stays online and ends up being outside their control. A photo, maybe even one that’s suggestive, can be retrieved years later by a potential employer. The personal information contained within social networking profiles can be used for illegal purposes by unscrupulous persons.

The “Use Your Head When Posting Online” Campaign, which be found online at www.sicurinrete.it until the 12th of February, aims to sensitise youngsters and adults about the need to treat their personal data with greater care.

“Maybe you don’t even realise it, but when you chat, post, or publish online … your data becomes accessible and not just by you…at times, also by those you don’t want having access to it”, an “Absolute Zero”, for example, reminds the Net’s so many young users through an enjoyable video published on the campaign site’s home.

“A photo is forever! (and we’re not talking about diamonds…) “So, do think twice before publishing anything online” is the message that emerges when the big gift parcel on the home page is clicked on. Or, by clicking on another parcel, you’ll see “You want to use a sexy picture to provoke someone? The problem is what you might actually provoke…”

And there is also no shortage of advice and questions for adults: “When you publish something online you lose control over it. Always keep that in mind”. “The Internet is a public place like any other. Always ask yourself: and if the children should pass by?”

In the case of each of the messages it is therefore possible to reach a deeper level, with further ideas for reflection, as well as advice about how to best safeguard one’s privacy without having to give up the pleasures of the online community.

The Use Your Head When You Post Online Campaign also makes use of the TV spot produced by the European Commission for Safer Internet Day. It will be broadcast throughout Italy all day today by La7 within its daily programme schedule.

The Las Vegas City Council will debate today whether to strike a deal with an Internet entrepreneur who seeks to use the Internet suffix .vegas — over the objections of Clark County officials and one local company who say the city is jumping the gun and in the process likely shortchanging Las Vegas and county taxpayers.

The council will consider endorsing a proposal by Dot Vegas Inc., to create the top-level Internet domain “.vegas” — a new suffix that could be used in addition to the familiar .com, .net, .gov or .org suffixes that end most Web addresses.The city’s interest is its bottom line: Every time someone registered a .vegas Web site name, they would pay a fee to the domain owner, who, in turn, would pay the city a portion of that fee. Dot Vegas is offering the city 75 cents per registration, or 10 percent of the gross revenues from future registrations.

The company did not return a call to the Sun for comment; the company’s attorney, Jay Brown, would not comment. Some Clark County officials question the city’s right to exclusively benefit from a .vegas domain. Because city limits end at Sahara Avenue and don’t include the Strip — the landmark commercial district that most people recognize as “Las Vegas” — some county officials say their government should share in any profits from the name.

The Las Vegas City Council will debate today whether to strike a deal with an Internet entrepreneur who seeks to use the Internet suffix .vegas — over the objections of Clark County officials and one local company who say the city is jumping the gun and in the process likely shortchanging Las Vegas and county taxpayers.

The council will consider endorsing a proposal by Dot Vegas Inc., to create the top-level Internet domain “.vegas” — a new suffix that could be used in addition to the familiar .com, .net, .gov or .org suffixes that end most Web addresses.The city’s interest is its bottom line: Every time someone registered a .vegas Web site name, they would pay a fee to the domain owner, who, in turn, would pay the city a portion of that fee. Dot Vegas is offering the city 75 cents per registration, or 10 percent of the gross revenues from future registrations.

The company did not return a call to the Sun for comment; the company’s attorney, Jay Brown, would not comment. Some Clark County officials question the city’s right to exclusively benefit from a .vegas domain. Because city limits end at Sahara Avenue and don’t include the Strip — the landmark commercial district that most people recognize as “Las Vegas” — some county officials say their government should share in any profits from the name.

Despite the prevalence and popularity of social networking sites like Facebook, almost a third of respondents said that they preferred to meet friends face-to-face, although 44 percent said the internet made it easier to keep in touch with them. More than seven in 10 children said their most common use of the Internet was for gaming, while 59 percent said that they used the worldwide web in the course of doing their homework. The youngsters from Britain, Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Poland also expressed a strong sense of social responsibility, with 90 percent saying it was important to look after the planet, and 74 percent saying they recycled regularly.

They've never known a world without the Internet, but they still prefer to meet their friends offline.

Microsoft Fights The Distribution Of Child-Exploitation Images With PhotoDNA

Thanks to efforts from Microsoft Research, criminals involved in child-exploitation will have less places to hide, especially when it comes down to the nooks and crannies of the Internet. Ernie Allen, president and CEO of National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) notes that while the Internet has created new opportunities for pedophiles to access content in the privacy of their own homes, and to expose themselves less to the risks associated with their illegal activities, work has been done to identify them and bring them to justice. At the same time, PhotoDNA is designed to help stop the distribution of child-exploitation images across the web.

NCMEC will be using a technology donated by Microsoft in order to produce blueprints of known images of children abuse.

Forty years after it was invented, the Internet is straining under the weight of cyber attacks, multimedia content and new mobile applications. In response, U.S. computer scientists are re-thinking every aspect of the Internet's architecture, from IP addresses to routing tables (see main story: 2020 Vision: Why you won't recognize the 'Net in 10 years) to overall Internet security. There are many views about how to fix the Internet's architecture, but there's widespread agreement about many aspects of the future Internet. Here's our list of 11 surefire bets for what the Internet will look like in a decade.

Thirty percent of 17-year-olds with cell phones have received sexting photos or videos, while eight percent have sent them, according to a new report from the Pew Research Center. What's more, four percent of 12- to 17-year-olds admit they have texted sexually suggestive nude or nearly nude images of themselves to someone else. Another 15 percent said they have received such images.

Meanwhile, laws and law-enforcement practices have emerged around sexting. The Pew report notes that some law-enforcement officers and district attorneys have begun prosecuting teens who create and share such images under laws generally reserved for producers and distributors of child pornography.

Lessons in using the internet safely are set to become a compulsory part of the curriculum for primary school children in England from 2011.

The lessons are one element of a new government strategy being unveiled called "Click Clever, Click Safe". Children will also be encouraged to follow an online "Green Cross Code" and block and report inappropriate content. The measures have been drawn up by the UK Council on Child Internet Safety, a new body comprising 140 organisations. The campaign intends to encourage children to not give out personal information on the web, block unwanted messages on social networks and report any inappropriate behaviour to the appropriate bodies, which may include the website, teachers or even police.

7-18 December: ITU programme at the UNFCCC ”iseeT@COP15” Kiosk to be held every day from 13.00 to 14.00 hours during the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

The 2009 exhibition of the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will focus on how information and communication technologies (ICTs) are helping to increase awareness and to support concrete action on climate change in both developing and developed countries.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is contributing a special programme of daily "business talks" by leaders in the ICT sector from both developing and developed countries which will be held every day from 13.00 to 14.00 hours from 7 to 18 December 2009.

10 December: ITU-WIPO Side-event on "The effective use of ICTs and the IP system for mitigating climate change"

International Telecommunication Union (ITU) organized a joint side-event with World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on "The effective use of ICTs and the IP system for mitigating climate change" where top decision-makers from governments, international organizations and industry shared their views and solutions on how ICTs can help to adapt and mitigate the effects of climate change and debated over the potential role and impact of the intellectual property (IP) system in promoting the development of new technologies, and in leveraging access to technology.

Australia’s Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has announced that the country’s A$43 billion high-speed broadband network – now under construction - will reduce his country's carbon emissions by five per cent. It seems, the role that information and communication technologies (ICT) can play in reducing greenhouse gas emissions has been accepted by at least one world leader, if not by many others.

The stand-up-and-be-counted guy is the Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd – who will be attending the global climate change meeting in Copenhagen this week. Speaking to a broadband conference in Sydney earlier today Mr. Rudd said the reduction in travel costs made possible by the use of telepresence video conferencing technology and the facilitation of smart metering energy usage monitoring are two reasons why the country’s National Broadband Network (NBN) will be successful in reducing the country’s carbon emissions by an impressive five per cent. “Together, the NBN and CPRS (carbon pollution reduction scheme) are critical to Australia's efforts to address climate change,” he said.

"It is also essential for many of the technologies that will help us reduce carbon emissions, improve health services, create a world class education system and improve opportunities for all Australians, no matter where they live,” he added.

COPENHAGEN — One of the major topics at the Copenhagen climate summit this week has been how can governments monitor and reduce deforestation, given that the removal of forests contributes to a fifth of the world’s global greenhouse gas emissions. The UN has suggested the REDD framework (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries) and negotiators have been deliberating over variations like REDD+ and REDD++ (sounds like a computer language).

Well, at the Copenhagen event on Thursday Google showed off a tool that helps collect and manage deforestation data, and which could come in very handy for groups backing these different forestry frameworks. Here’s how it works: Google takes the type of satellite data that it uses for its Google Earth mapping service — in this case satellite photos of forests over time — and marries it with measurement software developed by Greg Asner of Carnegie Institution for Science and Carlos Souza of Imazon. Google says Asner and Souza’s forest monitoring software tool, and others like it, have been “hampered by lack of access to satellite imagery data and computational resources for processing.”

Google then throws this all together into a tool that sits in Google’s “cloud” — cloud computing is distributed, on demand, scalable computing — and offers it up to researchers and policy makers via the web. That means researchers that might not have the resources to access this type of data and measurement tools, can access “terabytes of satellite imagery and thousands of computers” via Google’s prototype tool. Google says the deforestation measurement tool, which isn’t available to the public yet, will provide this valuable deforestation information more quickly, more easily, more cheaply, with increased security and privacy (hello climategate) and with a much larger impact on fighting climate change than has been previously available. And since it’s coming out of Google.org it will be a not-for-profit product. T

he idea highlights the role that information and communication technology can play in fighting climate change. At an event at the Copenhagen summit this afternoon, Microsoft’s sustainability officer Rob Bernard emphasized the role that ICT can play in providing research and collaboration among scientists. ICT is about unearthing and managing data, and that data can be used to make crucial decisions in reducing the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, explained Bernard. Both Microsoft and Google have a large presence, in terms of IT companies, at COP15.

The 13-year-old Florida girl sent a topless photo of herself to a boy in hope of gaining his attention. Instead, she got the attention of her school, as well as the high school nearby. The incessant bullying by classmates that followed when the photo spread put an emotional weight upon Hope that she ultimately could not bear.

Her death is only the second known case of a suicide linked to bullying after “sexting” — the practice of transmitting sexual messages or images electronically. In March, 18-year-old Jesse Logan killed herself in the face of a barrage of taunts when an ex-boyfriend forwarded explicit photos of her following their split. “As far as training them on the Internet and what to look at and what not to look at, yeah, we talked about it,”

The European Union’s first dedicated NGO Alliance for Child Safety Online (eNACSO) launched its Digital Manifesto on 14 November 2009 during the Internet Governance Forum(IGF) in Egypt. ‘The global nature of the internet places a particular responsibility on international institutions and governments to take action at national and international level to ensure children are safe online’ says Dieter Carstensen, eNACSO Chair.

The Digital Manifesto will form part of eNACSO’s ‘Agenda for Action’ document which will be launched in Brussels in May 2010.

That television set you discourage your children from watching may not be the greatest threat to their wellbeing. Instead, the mobile phone is the gateway in introducing children to the world of cyberspace, posing a great risk to their safety, a lobby group said Tuesday.

According to The Cradle, the unmonitored use of technology is increasingly exposing youngsters to the risk of harm and violence. "Only 24 per cent of children in the study reported to their parents or an authority of online or cell phone harassment,” Cradle programme manager Brian Weke told journalists. The study also revealed that 77 out of the 96, who had the incidences reported to them, took no action and ignored the seriousness of the matter.

The fifth-annual survey of domain name servers (DNS) on the public Internet—called a "Pandora's box of both frightening and hopeful results"—was released today by The Measurement Factory in partnership with Infoblox.

Cricket Liu, Vice President of Architecture at Infoblox and author of O'Reilly & Associates' DNS and BIND, DNS & BIND Cookbook says: "Of particular interest is the enormous growth in the number of Internet-connected name servers, largely attributable to the introduction by carriers of customer premises equipment (CPE) with embedded DNS functionality. This equipment represents a significant risk to the rest of the Internet, as without proper access controls, it facilitates enormous DDoS attacks."

Fraudsters Using Bogus and Legitimate Recruitment Sites to Con Job-Hunters Into Laundering Money

Reported today on BBC:"Police chiefs are urging people looking for work during the recession to be alert to online scams that trick them into laundering money. The Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) says websites are currently being used to recruit 'money mules'. The 'mules are ordinary people who send and receive payments through their bank accounts to facilitate business."

Neil Schwartzman has also informed us of a related report by RSA FraudAction Research Lab based on several months of tracking various reshipping scams engineered by online fraudsters.

Nearly half of England's 14-year-olds have been a victim of bullying and cyber-bullying is now the joint most common form, according to new research.

The Government-commissioned research, conducted by the National Centre for Social Research, analysed bullying among more than 10,000 secondary school pupils in England aged 14-16. The initial findings show that 47 per cent of young people report being bullied at the age of 14. After cyberbullying - where children face taunts, threats and insults via the internet and mobile phones - and name calling, the most common type of bullying was teenagers being threatened with violence, being excluded by their friends and facing actual violence.

African ICT and communications ministers again called for the bridging of the digital divide, during a ministerial conference held in Johannesburg this week. The conference was in preparation of the African Union Heads of State and Government Summit, to be held in Addis Ababa, in January next year. The conference involved most of the 53 African Union member states, providing a platform for ministers to discuss and seek resolution to ICT challenges on the continent.

Pedophiles can exploit virus-infected PCs to remotely store and view their stash without fear they'll get caught. Pranksters or someone trying to frame you can tap viruses to make it appear that you surf illegal Web sites. Whatever the motivation, you get child porn on your computer — and might not realize it until police knock at your door.

An Associated Press investigation found cases in which innocent people have been branded as pedophiles after their co-workers or loved ones stumbled upon child porn placed on a PC through a virus. It can cost victims hundreds of thousands of dollars to prove their innocence.

Spain says Internet-related child pornography has risen tenfold in the past five years. Francisco Villanueva of the Interior Ministry says the number of cases has gone from 108 in 2004 to 1,024 last year. Other Internet-related crimes also rose.

Villanueva said Thursday that hacking has risen from 92 to 447 cases, and that bank fraud has more than doubled in the same period, from 509 cases to 1,954. He says piracy of intellectual property decreased slightly from 330 to 298 cases, but that if more resources are not dedicated to policing piracy, Spain could lose up to 300,000 jobs. Villanueva says Spain's cyber crime levels are similar to those of neighboring European countries.

According to a report released today by Nominet, UK's domain name registry, 77% of British consumers prefer to use a .uk rather than a .com when searching for information on the Internet. The report also indicates that despite the current economic climate, the global domain name industry has seen an 8% growth with 187.6 million domain names registered worldwide. "Generic top level domains (gTLDs), such as .org and .com, have grown on average by 6% whilst the country code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs) including .uk and .de (the German registry) fared slightly better and together generated a 10% average growth in registrations," says Nominet.

Victim's Mother Warns About Social Networking After Man Charged With Killing

The 17-year-old’s body was dumped in a ditch after she sneaked out of her home on Sunday night to meet a boy she thought was 16, but who turned out to be 32. Her mother, Andrea Hall urged, “Tell your kids to be careful on the internet. Don't trust anybody and don't put your children on Facebook or other sites if they are under age. All we ask now is that people help the police in any way they can. We don't want any other child to be a victim.”

A 32-year-old man, of no fixed abode was due to appear at Newton Aycliffe Magistrates Court on Wednesday, charged with manslaughter and kidnap. The convicted sex offender was also charged with failing to notify a new address as required for sex offenders under the Sexual Offences Act 2003.

Twitter warned users Tuesday of a new phishing scam on the social networking site. It's the latest in a series of scams that have plagued the site over the past year, designed to trick victims into giving up their user names and passwords.

"We've seen a few phishing attempts today, if you've received a strange DM and it takes you to a Twitter login page, don't do it!," Twitter wrote on its Spam message page. The message reads, "hi. this you on here?" and includes a link to a fake Web site designed to look like a Twitter log-in page. After entering a user name and password, victims enter an empty blogspot page belonging to someone named NetMeg99.

A man is being questioned after the body of a teenager he is believed to have met on the internet was discovered in a field in County Durham.

Det Ch Insp Paul Harker said the case highlighted the dangers of meeting people on the internet, and urged parents to monitor their children's online habits. He said: "This is a very, very unusual event. My message in terms of meeting people from the internet is 'please do not do it unless you are absolutely certain it is safe'." He added: "Speak to them about it, speak to their friends, let them know the dangers of the internet."

ICT's role in combating climate highlighted in the Doha Summit (Source: The Peninsula/ BY SATISH KANADY )

DOHA: Aviation industry leaders meeting here for three days from today will discuss a possible roadmap for “Green Aviation” to influence policymakers at the forthcoming Copenhagen climate summit.

The crucial Doha Aviation Summit will also discuss the public-private partnership in ensuring a carbon-free future and formulate a green agenda for the aviation industry. IATA has been calling on governments to adopt a sectoral approach to emission reductions for long. The industry has committed to some tough targets, including carbon-neutral growth from 2020. At the Doha summit, Quentin Browell, Assistant Director, Aviation Environment, at IATA, will explain why each government needs to think globally to finetune the aviation industry’s strategy to fight climate change ...

IPv6 addresses: North American ISPs are now grabbing for them over IPv4

U.S. ISPs are requesting more IPv6 addresses and fewer IPv4 addresses than ever before -- a sign that carriers are investing in the future amidst one of the deepest recessions in modern history.

The shift in IP address requests shows that North American carriers are getting ready for the long-anticipated upgrade of the Internet's main communications protocol from IPv4, the current standard, to the next-generation IPv6.

[What U.S. businesses are missing in their slow move to IPv6. | Despite businesses' faint interest, the shift to IPv6 is seen as an inevitable | Keep up on the latest networking news with our Technology: Networking newsletter. ]

A 15-year-old girl who posted her profile on a vampire website was allegedly murdered by two men who created a "fictional internet alter-ego" a court heard.

Carly Ryan's body was found by a swimmer on an Australian beach in 2007. Yesterday a father and son appeared before the South Australian supreme court accused of setting a trap that led to her alleged murder. The girl posted personal details and photographs of herself on the Gothic website www.vampirefreaks.com and soon began an internet romance with a fictitious teenager called Brandon.

According to a newsletter published by the DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC) Deployment Coordination Initiative, Thailand's ".th"became the first country code top-level domain (ccTLD) in Asia to adopt the securiy protocol.

DNSSEC introduces security at the infrastructure level, encrypting DNS records using cryptographic signatures. The protocol has been established for years, but came into the spotlight again last year when security researcher Dan Kaminsky identified a fundamental flaw in the DNS. At that time, Cambridge University security expert Richard Clayton said the use of the encrypted protocol is one way to mediate the security loophole.

Today's announcement that the City of New York will seek the .NYC web address makes New York the first U.S. city to seek a top-level domain. dotNYC LLC, a private company that for the last year has been meeting with city officials about the plan for the .NYC web address, is applying to become the city's operating partner.

Former Mayor Ed Koch, who supports the dotNYC effort to operate .NYC on the city's behalf, said: ".NYC is the best real estate deal since the Dutch bought Manhattan."

Access to a minimum of 1 Mbit Internet connection available to everyone in Finland by July 2010

As of 1 July 2010 1 Mbit Internet connection will be defined as a universal service.

This means that telecom operators defined as universal service providers must be able to provide every permanent residence and business office with access to a reasonably priced and high-quality connection with a downstream rate of at least 1 Mbit/s.

The length of the transition period before the universal service obligation starts has been reduced by six months from the previous plan.

A decree of Finland’s Ministry of Transport and Communications states that by the end of 2009 the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority will determine the telecom operators that will be imposed a universal service obligation. The service providers may decide the technology they wish to use for the service.

It’s the F word question that all parents now dread. “Can I go on Facebook?” your eleven year-old bullies you over dinner, declaring that absolutely everybody else in her class is not only on Facebook, but also on Twitter as well as Bebo and Orkut and other peculiarly named social networks.

So how should parents in today’s social media age deal with the F word question? Is social networking bad for children’s brains? Should we allow our kids to freely expose their identities on the Internet?

Last night (12 October 2009), a routine maintenance of Sweden’s top-level domain .se went seriously wrong, introducing an error that made DNS lookups for all .se domain names start failing. The entire Swedish Internet effectively stopped working at this point. Swedish (.se) websites could not be reached, email to Swedish domain names stopped working, and for many these problems persist still.

According to sources we have inside the Swedish web hosting industry, the .se zone, the central record for the .se top-level domain, broke at 21:19 21:45 local time and was not returned to normal until 22:43 local time.

However, since DNS lookups are cached externally by Internet service providers (ISPs) and web hosting companies, the problems remained even after that. It wasn’t until around 23:30 local time last night that the major Swedish ISPs had flushed their own DNS caches, meaning that they cleared away the broken results so that new DNS lookups could start working properly again. If they had not done this the problem would have remained for a full 24 hours.

There are still a large number of smaller ISPs that have not yet fixed the problem. It is also likely that ISPs outside of Sweden is not aware of the incident, so the effects of the problem may remain there as well.

dotMobi, the company behind the .mobi top-level Internet domain, today announced the availability of its one-of-a-kind mobile keyword and .mobi domain bundle for Chinese brands and businesses, offered in partnership with China-based mobile keyword vendor Huarui.

Currently, more than 50% of China's 1.3 billion citizens are estimated to be mobile subscribers—a figure that will quickly grow with the advent of 3G networks, which are just now arriving in China. And as with other countries, 3G mobile network speeds will drive the growth of mobile Web use. dotMobi's unique mobile keyword and .mobi domain bundle is designed to meet the needs of businesses in that burgeoning mobile Web environment.

Trey Harvin, CEO of dotMobi, said, "The packaging of mobile keywords and .mobi domains is a global first. This gives Chinese site owners the flexibility of using the .mobi domain to help ensure successful discovery by search engines, while using both the .mobi domain and matching keyword in advertising efforts."

A survey of 16 to 24 year olds has found that 75% of them feel they "couldn't live" without the internet. The report, published by online charity YouthNet, also found that four out of five young people used the web to look for advice.

About one third added that they felt no need to talk to a person face to face about their problems because of the resources available online. The survey looked at how the web influences the well-being of people aged between 16 and 24.

The founder of lastminute.com, Martha Lane Fox, has unveiled an ambitious policy to get everyone in Britain online by 2012, backed by a study that says it would save the government up to £1bn annually in customer service costs and boost the economy by more than £20bn.

Lane Fox, who is now chair of the government-created Digital Inclusion Task Force, says that getting the 10m Britons who have never used the internet to go online could generate at least £22.6bn in economic benefit – including at least £10.6bn over the lifetimes of the 1.6m children who have never used it.

Internet users in the North East of England have the most nervous attitude towards the web, according to research that highlights the country's "digital divide".

Online engagement will soon replace social class as the most powerful determiner of economic success, damaging the career prospects of internet refuseniks, according to the social anthologist who analysed the survey. Nearly one-third (31 per cent) of in the North East are reluctant to use the internet for anything more than sending email and occasional browsing, higher than the national average of 23 per cent.

Twitter users should refrain from changing their log-in data until further notice or else risk getting locked out of their accounts. Twitter is investigating instances of users who have lost access to their accounts after modifying their usernames, passwords or e-mail addresses, the microblogging company said on Tuesday.

Until the problem is resolved, Twitter users shouldn't modify their log-in data, according to an official posting on Twitter's Status Web site. "This seems to affect new users as well as long term users," the note reads.

1. There's always a friend's computer. 2. They're a form of censorship. 3. They give you a false sense of security. 4. Kids resent them -- and you. 5. Kids can defeat them. 6. They catch too much. 7. They don't catch everything.

Most parental control programs use a combination of filtering techniques to block access to unwanted sites. But each method is vulnerable, and none promises 100% accuracy. Text-based filters can't really determine the context of words or phrases, so they can block access to perfectly acceptable sites. Words like "sucking," for example, might get caught in the filter and prevent your kid from researching, say, mosquitoes.

"We were at a restaurant for my mom's birthday. I looked over and there are my daughter and my oldest son texting, holding their phones under the table," said the mom of four in Lewiston, Idaho. "I just came unglued. I was like, `Are you kidding? You're at your grandma's birthday party. Put those phones away now!'"

We all know teens love their gadgets — more for texting than talking. But the devices are posing some new challenges for parents. How can they teach their tech-savvy kids some electronic etiquette? So far, parents are learning on the fly, imposing new rules for their young offenders such as "no texting at dinner."

It's your birthday. And thanks to your Facebook profile, everybody knows that. Your wall fills up with well wishes from hundreds of "friends." Sure, it's nice to be noticed. But security experts are skeptical about whether sharing information, such as birthdays, with a broad audience is a bright idea. "It's all about providing the bad guy with intelligence," said Robert Siciliano, CEO of IDtheftsecurity.com.

Many people use their birthdate in passwords and personal identification numbers, and security questions often ask for it to resend a lost password. So broadcasting a birthdate could help cybercriminals pose as others as they log on to various Web sites, experts warned.

Web surfing is no longer a solo affair. Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks have quickly become an integral part of the online culture, and with them comes a whole new array of potential security threats.

Social networking is built on the idea of sharing information openly and fostering a sense of community. Unfortunately, an online network of individuals actively sharing their experiences and seeking connections with other like-minded people can be easy prey for hackers bent on social-engineering and phishing attacks. It's important to be aware of the threats, and to maintain a healthy skepticism in your online interactions.

VeriSign today released its second quarter 2009 Domain Name Industry Brief where it reports that the total base of domain name registrations across all of the Top-Level Domains [TLDs] has now reached 184 million. However the report also indicates that there has been a 15% decline compared to the same quarter last year. From the report:

"Around nine million new domain names were registered across all of the TLDs in the second quarter of 2009. This reflects a reduction in new registrations with a 14 percent decline from the first quarter 2009 and a 15 percent decline from the same quarter in the previous year. As seen in past years, there is seasonality in domain name registrations with the second quarter of the year dropping from the first quarter. In second quarter 2009, the impact of seasonality as well as the overall weak economic conditions impacted the number of new registrations for both gTLD [generic Top-Level Domains] and ccTLD [country code Top-Level Domains] registrations, though the ccTLD decline was much larger."

For the past decade America has delegated some of its authority over the internet to a non-profit organisation called the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)—an arrangement other countries have complained about, both because they have little say in it and because ICANN’s management has occasionally proved erratic. ICANN’s latest mandate is due to expire on September 30th. The day before, a new accord is planned to come into effect, whereby America will pass some of its authority over ICANN to the “internet community” of businesses, individual users and other governments.

Previous agreements had maintained close American oversight over ICANN and imposed detailed reforms, but the latest document, called an “affirmation of commitments”, is only four pages long. It gives ICANN the autonomy to manage its own affairs. Whereas prior agreements had to be renewed every few years, the new one has no fixed term.

Teens and texting is a subject that's often discussed in pathological terms. They're texting in class! They're sexting! They need thumb therapy! But texting isn't always bad. In some families, it's become a primary form of communication between parents and children. In fact, one of my favorite texts from kids is the earth-shattering query "Wuz4dina?"

Psychologist Thomas W. Phelan says one of the biggest problems with teens is getting them to communicate at all, so if they're willing to text their parents, we should embrace the trend. "Instead of seeing the whole text thing as an enemy, see it as an ally."

A third of Web users under 25 claim they don't care about their "digital tattoo" and the items they post online, says Symantec. Symantec said a "digital tattoo" is created by all the personal information web users post online and can easily be found through search engines by a potential or current employer, friends and acquaintances, or anyone who has malicious intent.

The security firm revealed that nearly two-thirds of all those surveyed had uploaded personal photographs, while 79 percent had at least part of their address online and nearly half had their mobile phone numbers online.

Summit on Climate Change to take place in New York on 22 September 2009

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is convening a Summit on Climate Change to focus Heads of State and Government on the need for urgent action, and to mobilize the highest level political will needed to reach a fair, effective and scientifically ambitious global climate deal at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen this December.

South Korea aims to build the world's first nationwide smart grid system to reduce its emissions by monitoring energy use more carefully.

Unlike conventional "dumb" electricity grids, smart grids allow two-way communication between electricity suppliers and consumers, as well as enabling more dispersed generation and storage of power.

The grid, to be set up by 2030, is part of the country's $103bn initiative to increase its generation of green energy from the current 2.4 per cent of total power to 11 per cent in the next two decades. According to a government-led committee, South Korea could lower its greenhouse gas emissions by 40 million tonnes annually with a national smart grid.

First ITU/WMO Seminar on the Use of Radio Spectrum for Meteorology: Weather, Water and Climate Monitoring and Prediction (16-18 September 2009)

Between 1980 and 2005, over 7,000 natural disasters worldwide took the lives of more than 2 million people and produced economic losses estimated at over 1.2 trillion US dollars. Ninety per cent of these natural disasters, 72 per cent of casualties and 75 per cent of economic losses were caused by weather-, climate- and water-related hazards, such as droughts, floods, severe storms and tropical cyclones. For this reason, climate change monitoring and disaster prediction mechanisms are increasingly vital for our personal safety and economic wellbeing. Currently, radio-based applications such as remote sensors are the main source of information about the Earth´s atmosphere and surface.

For 135 years, there has been excellent collaboration and partnership between WMO and ITU. Whilst WMO focuses its efforts on meeting the needs for environmental information and the corresponding radio frequency spectrum resources, ITU, as international steward of the spectrum, allocates the necessary radio frequencies to allow the interference-free operation of radio-based applications and radiocommunication systems (terrestrial and space) used for climate monitoring and prediction, weather forecasting and disaster early warning and detection.

This seminar is organized as an open forum for discussion of the ITU and WMO roles in the use of radio spectrum, space orbits and radio-based meteorological tools and systems for monitoring, mitigation and adaptation to climate change.

The primary goal of this seminar is to provide information and exchange of the experience National Meteorological and Radio-Frequency Spectrum Management Services/Authorities have on the use and further development of radio-based space and terrestrial systems and applications employed for weather, water and climate monitoring and the relevant radio-frequency spectrum management activities.

The main issues proposed for discussion are as follows: The role of information communication technologies (ICTs) in general, and radio-based technologies in particular, in monitoring climate change - general overview; WMO and ITU roles in development, use and effective operation of systems and applications for monitoring of the environment, prediction, detection of natural disasters and mitigation of negative effects of disasters initiated by climate change; Current status and development of radio-based systems and applications for weather, water and climate monitoring and prediction; Operation of meteorological systems and quality of meteorological measurements; Activities of other national and international organizations in climate monitoring and disaster prediction, detection and mitigation of negative effects of disasters.

The projected 15% reduction in emissions stems from energy savings worth €600 billion. Savings that are especially important as they are five times the industry’s own footprint. In the new report Carbon Connections: Quantifying mobile's role in tackling climate change, published by Accenture and Vodafone, 13 wireless telecommunications opportunities are identified that have the potential to reduce carbon emissions by 113 Mt CO2e a year and cut associated energy costs by €43 billion across the EU-25 countries in 2020.

Spurred by this new report, Ethical Corporation has teamed up with Vodafone to host an online Live Debate on September 30th 2009 to provide the platform for a robust and challenging discussion on how mobile can enable a low carbon economy.

Ericsson Calls on Delegates to Raise ICT to Top of Agenda at UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen

Ericsson said that the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector is crucial to creating a low-carbon 21st century infrastructure. Using today's communications infrastructure in a smart way can maintain economic development while dramatically reducing emissions.

Giving a keynote address at the Broadband World Forum in Paris today, Ericsson CFO and incoming CEO Hans Vestberg said: "For too long the need for CO2 reductions has been seen as a trade off between economic development and care for the planet. This does not have to be the case. Because the ICT sector can reduce CO2emissions substantially, government representatives have an opportunity to bring ICT onto the agenda for the upcoming United Nations framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen (COP15) in December." Vestberg continued: "Studies show that ICT can reduce global CO2emissions by 15% by 2020. Ericsson believes that with an innovation-driven climate agenda, reductions could be even greater.

Modern ICT solutions, ranging from education and information services, health as well as transport, can give access to vital services all over the world, without sacrificing our environment."

President Barack Obama warned American teenagers on Tuesday of the dangers of putting too much personal information on Internet social networking sites, saying it could come back to haunt them in later life. "Well, let me give you some very practical tips. First of all, I want everybody here to be careful about what you post on Facebook, because in the YouTube age, whatever you do, it will be pulled up again later somewhere in your life," Obama said.

The presidential words of advice follow recent studies that suggest U.S. employers are increasingly turning to sites such as Facebook and News Corp's MySpace to conduct background checks on job applicants.

Web sites that collect information about visitors in order to target advertising on their own pages would be required to prominently disclose what information they gather. Web sites that share user information with outside advertising networks, which place ads on sites all over the Internet, would be required to obtain user approval before collecting data. Web sites that deal with sensitive personal information, such as medical and financial data, sexual orientation, Social Security numbers and other ID numbers, would be subject to the opt-in rule.

Rep. Rick Boucher, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet, hopes to put in a bill governing Internet advertising.

The rise in ATM-related crime has prompted a EU security agency to urge consumers to be more careful about withdrawing money from cash machines. ENISA (European Network and Information Security Agency) estimates that annual cash machine losses in Europe have increased to around €500m, a 149 per cent increase year-on-year. ENISA blames more sophisticated attacks and fraud alongside the rapid growth in the number of ATMs for the increase.

A paper by ENISA entitled ATM Crime: Overview of the European situation and golden rules on how to avoid it contains tips on choosing which ATMs to use and other precautions. Many of Europe's 400,000 ATMs (up six per cent since last year) are located in convenience stores, airports and petrol stations where they are at greater risk of tampering than those within banks or shopping malls. The UK, Spain, Germany, France and Italy collectively account for 72 per cent of these ATMs.

Fraudsters obtain card details and PINs using a wide range of tactics ranging from "shoulder surfing" to hardware skimmers. Other tactics include trapping and then retrieving users' cards. More recently the use of malware has been implicated in these scams. During 2008, a total of 10,302 skimming incidents were reported in Europe, ENISA reports.

In an age in which instant news and constant life streams from Facebook and Twitter change the way we communicate, the rules of etiquette surrounding these interactions are still evolving. What happens when I expected a phone call about something and read about it in a status update instead? What's the polite response to a distant friend posting bad news on Facebook? What to do with sensitive information?

Good etiquette on Facebook might not apply on Twitter or in an e-mail. These days, milestones like marriage, pregnancy, breakups and divorce are being described over more forms of communications than ever. Because it's so new, there is sort of a gray area of what the manners are,"

Police investigating a complex online fraud which scammed more than a million pounds from taxpayers have arrested a man in London. The 32-year-old's home in Poplar, east London was raided in the early hours of Thursday. He was taken to Bethnal Green police station on suspicion of fraud and money laundering.

The arrest follows HMRC's discovery in June of "an e-crime attack" on its self-assessment system. The attack was part of a tax repayment claim fraud. The Met's recently-formed Police Central e-Crime Unit (PceU) said with HMRC it is now looking into "a criminal network" thought to be behind the attack.

A US woman has been stung for $4,000 via a fraudulent Facebook "friend in peril" scam. Jayne Scherrman, a pediatric dentist from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, wired the money via Western Union to what she thought was her friend Grace Parry in response to requests for help via Facebook. The messages claimed that Grace and her husband had lost everything after being robbed while on holiday in London and requested $600 in order to resolve their difficulties.

Attackers have begun actively targeting an unpatched hole in Microsoft's Internet Information Services webserver using new exploit code that greatly expands the number of systems that are vulnerable to the bug.

In an updated advisory published Friday, Microsoft researchers said they are seeing "limited attacks" exploiting the vulnerability, which resides in a file transfer protocol component of IIS. Exploit code publicly released in the past 24 hours is now able to cause vulnerable servers to crash even when users don't have the ability to create their own directories.

Ben Alexander spent nearly every waking minute playing the video game "World of Warcraft." As a result, he flunked out of the University of Iowa. He needed help to break an addiction he calls as destructive as alcohol or drugs.

Internet addiction is not recognized as a separate disorder by the American Psychiatric Association, and treatment is not generally covered by insurance. But there are many such treatment centers in China, South Korea and Taiwan - where Internet addiction is taken very seriously - and many psychiatric experts say it is clear that Internet addiction is real and harmful.

Federal judge George Wu officially overturned the conviction of Lori Drew, who was convicted of cyberbullying 13-year-old Megan Meier to suicide. That conviction was based on the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), which makes it a crime to intentionally accessing a computer system with intent to commit a crime or tort.

But that law, the judge found, cannot be stretched so far that it would include mere violations of website terms of service. Something more than violating a TOS is needed. Otherwise, the law would “convert a multitude of otherwise innocent Internet users into misdemeanant criminals.”

At trial, the jury found Drew guilty of misdemeanor violations of CFAA based on the theory that accessing MySpace with intent to harrass Meier was an unauthorized access of an interstate computer. The verdict drew consternation because it seemed to suggest that merely violating a website’s terms of service could be the basis for criminal prosecution.

The hacker accused of orchestrating the largest-known identity theft in US history will serve between 15 to 25 years in prison under a plea deal filed Friday.

Albert "Segvec" Gonzalez is accused of leading a hacking circle that stole 130 million credit and debit card numbers from major retail chains like Barnes and Noble, T.J. Maxx, Sports Authority, and OfficeMax.

Windows users based in the United States are the most likely to benefit from Microsoft's malicious software removal tool, which has removed malware from nearly 2.2 million US machines, more than the other nine top countries combined.

Over the same period, the MSRT has disinfected 383,378 machines in China, 282,152 in Brazil, 278,207 in the UK, and 262,539 in Korea, according to statistics Microsoft published here. In all, 2.18 million US-based machines were cleaned, compared with 1.87 million machines based in the other countries contained on the top-10 list.

Facebook has agreed to make worldwide changes to its privacy policy as a result of negotiations with Canada's privacy commissioner. Last month the social network was found to breach Canadian law by holding on to users' personal data indefinitely.

It will also make it clear that users can deactivate or delete their account. "These changes mean that the privacy of 200 million Facebook users in Canada and around the world will be far better protected," said Canadian privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart.

Users of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter could face higher insurance premiums because burglars may be using them to find out their personal details. The Digital Criminal report, which polled 2,000 social network users, found nearly two fifths had posted details of their holiday plans, with nearly two thirds of 16-24 year-olds doing so.

"I call it 'internet shopping for burglars'. It is incredibly easy to use social neyworking sites to target people, and then scope out more information on their actual home using other internet sites like Google Street View, all from the comfort of the sofa."

Computerworld - Hackers using multi-exploit attack "toolkits" take defensive measures of their own against other criminals, a security researcher said today.

"Exploit kit operators do use mainstream browsers, but they're much more likely to use Opera than the average user, because they know that the browser isn't targeted by other hackers," said Paul Royal, a principal security researcher with Atlanta-based Purewire.

While the most generous Web measurements peg Opera, a browser made by Norwegian company Opera Software, at a 2% share of the global market, 26% of the hackers who Purewire identified use the far-from-popular application.

The IEEE has brought together an alliance of anti-virus vendors in an industry group that aims to improve and better organise collaboration, with an initial focus on better standards for malware sample sharing. Vendors including AVG, McAfee, Microsoft, Sophos, Symantec and Trend Micro have signed up to the newly newly-formed Industry Connections Security Group (ICSG). Anti-virus researchers at these firms (and others such as Kaspersky and F-secure yet to sign up to ICSG) have been sharing virus samples for years. What the ICSG wants to bring to the party is better organisation and standardisation to this process, as its mission statement explains:

"While there has been some ad-hoc co-operation in the industry in areas such as malware and phish URL sharing, this co-operation has not been standardized or documented in a format that lends itself to systematic improvement in operational efficiency or visibility and review by people outside the vertical industries. ICSG currently has one Working Group looking at Malware, but expects to add other Working Groups over time."

Adobe Systems has released updates that patch vulnerabilities in two widely used web development applications, several of which let attackers steal sensitive data or take complete control of users' machines.

In all, the patches fix seven flaws in versions 8.0.1 and earlier of ColdFusion and JRun 4.0. The most serious of them are XSS, or cross-site scripting, bugs that allow attackers to execute malicious code on an underlying system by supplying a target with a booby-trapped web link.

An Australian Federal Police boast, on the ABC's Four Corners program, about officers breaking up an underground hacker forum, has backfired after hackers broke into a federal police computer system. Security consultants say police appear to have been using the computer as a honeypot to collect information on members of the forum but the scheme came undone after the officers forgot to set a password. Last Wednesday, federal police officers in co-operation with Victoria Police executed a search warrant on premises in Brighton, Melbourne, connected to the administrator of an underground hacking forum, r00t-y0u.org, which had about 5000 members.

Many details of the investigation were revealed for the first time on Four Corners last night. After the raid, the federal police covertly assumed control of the forum and began using it to gather evidence about members. "We can operate in a covert activity here fairly seamlessly with no harm to our members with continual and actual significant penetration," Neil Gaughan, national manager of the federal police's High Tech Crimes Operation, told Four Corners.

However, what the federal police did not know was that hackers had already cottoned on to their plan. Police were monitoring the forum by logging into the account of the administrator they had raided, but this aroused suspicion among members who knew the raid had taken place. A hacker broke into the federal police's computer system and, according to a source close to the investigation, accessed both police evidence and intelligence about federal police systems such as its IP addresses.

A Missouri woman has become the first person to be charged with felony cyberbullying in that state after she allegedly posted photos and personal information of a teenage girl to the Casual Encounters section of Craigslist.

Prosecutors said Elizabeth A. Thrasher, 40, posted the 17-year-old's picture, cell phone number, email address, and employer to the Craigslist section, which is frequented by adults looking for anonymous, no-strings-attached sex. The girl received lewd emails and calls in response, including pornographic pictures from men she didn't know.

US prosecutors have charged a man with stealing data relating to 130 million credit and debit cards.

Officials say it is the biggest case of identity theft in American history. They say Albert Gonzalez, 28, and two unnamed Russian co-conspirators hacked into the payment systems of retailers, including the 7-Eleven chain. Prosecutors say they aimed to sell the data on. If convicted, Mr Gonzalez faces up to 20 years in jail for wire fraud and five years for conspiracy.

He would also have to pay a fine of $250,000 (£150,000) for each of the two charges. Mr Gonzalez used a complicated technique known as an "SQL injection attack" to penetrate networks' firewalls and steal information, the US Department of Justice said. His corporate victims included Heartland Payment Systems - a card payment processor, convenience store 7-Eleven and Hannaford Brothers, a supermarket chain, the DOJ said.

IDG News Service - The cyberattacks against Georgia a year ago were conducted in close connection with Russian criminal gangs, and the attackers likely were tipped off about Russia's intent to invade the country, according to a new technical analysis, much of which remains secret.

The stunning conclusions come from the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit, an independent nonprofit research institute that assesses the impact of cyber attacks. A 100-page technical analysis is only being made available to the U.S. government and some cybersecurity professionals, but the organization did release a nine-page summary early Monday.

Half (52 per cent) of new malware strains only stick around for 24 hours or less. The prevalence of short lived variants reflects a tactic by miscreants aimed at overloading security firms so that more damaging strains of malware remain undetected for longer, according to a study by Panda Security.

The security firm, based in Bilbao, Spain, detects an average of 37,000 new viruses, worms, Trojans and other security threats per day. Around an average of 19,240 spread and try to infect users for just 24 hours, after which they become inactive as they are replaced by other, new variants.

Australian police have charged an as yet unnamed 20 year-old man on suspicion of creating a banking Trojan that infected an estimated 3,000 computers worldwide, as well as building up a 74,000 strong botnet of compromised machines.

The name of the suspect will not be revealed until he faces magistrates in Adelaide, South Australia, on 4 September. South Australia state police charged the man with computer crimes offences, including hacking and developing "capabilities to launch Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attacks with up to 74,000 computers world wide".

For the past couple weeks, Twitter has come under attacks that besieged it with more traffic than it could handle. Now comes evidence that the microblogging website is being used to feed the very types of infected machines that took it out of commission.

That's the conclusion of Jose Nazario, the manager of security research at Arbor Networks. On Thursday, he stumbled upon a Twitter account that was being used as part of an improvised update server for computers that are part of a botnet.

The account, which Twitter promptly suspended, issued tweets containing a single line of text that looked indecipherable to the naked eye. Using what's known as a base64 decoder, however, the dispatches pointed to links where infected computers could receive malware updates.

IDG News Service - Why spend millions of dollars campaigning when you can hack an election for less than 100 grand? That's a question raised by university researchers who recently bought a Sequoia AVC Advantage voting machine and then used a new hacking technique to circumvent its security. Although they've been hacked before, Sequoia's AVC machines are considered a pretty tough target because they have a special memory-protection mechanism that allows them to only run software they're hardwired to execute in the machine's ROM (read-only memory).

But using a new hacking technique, called a return-oriented programming attack, researchers were able to trick the machine into changing the results of an election, according to Alex Halderman, one of the university researchers behind the work. Halderman is with the University of Michigan, but researchers from the University of California, San Diego and Princeton University were also involved in the project. They presented their results at the Usenix 2009 Electronic Voting Workshop, held in Montreal this week.

IDG News Service - As smartphones become more popular, they're going to get some unwanted attention from criminals, Google Inc.'s head of Android security said today. "The smartphone OS will become a major security target," said Android Security Leader Rich Cannings, speaking at the Usenix Security Symposium. Attackers can already hit millions of victims with a smartphone attack, and soon that number will be even larger. "Personally I think this will become an epiphany to malware authors," he said.

Microsoft's Windows operating system is the prime target of criminal attacks, and hackers have generally steered clear of mobile devices. Security experts say that this is because mobile phones haven't traditionally stored a lot of sensitive data, and because there are so many different devices to attack, it's hard to create a single virus that can infect a large number of users.

A Washington state man who admitted using the LimeWire file-sharing program to steal tax returns and other sensitive documents has been sentenced to more than three years in federal prison.

Frederick Eugene Wood of Seattle was ordered to serve 39 months for a fraud scheme that prosecutors said was a "particularly pernicious and devious one." In it, Wood would search the hard drives of LimeWire users for files that contained words such as "statement," "account" and "tax.pdf." He would then download tax returns, bank statements, and other sensitive documents and use them to forge counterfeit checks and steal the identity of the individuals who filled out the documents.

eBay security officials are requiring members of its developer program to change their passwords following the discovery of a vulnerability that could allow attackers to intercept sensitive account details.

"eBay has recently identified a means by which someone could gain access to eBay Developers Program account information," Kumar Kandaswamy, manager of the eBay Developers Program, wrote in an advisory posted on the auctioneer's website. "Out of an abundance of caution and to help ensure the security of the eBay Developers Program, we are requiring that all developers" change their passwords.

Two weeks after internet overlords warned of a serious vulnerability in one of the most widely used programs for resolving domain names, Apple has updated its Mac OS X operating systems to fix the security bug.

The update, released Wednesday, patches a hole in BIND, the net's most popular domain name system package. It's available for both client and server versions of the Mac OS and follows an update released last week that plugged 18 holes and a separate fix issued on Tuesday for six holes in Apple's Safari browser.

Fraudsters are making approximately $34m per month through scareware attacks, designed to trick surfers into purchasing rogue security packages supposedly needed to deal with non-existent threats. A new study, The Business of Rogueware, by Panda Security researchers Luis Corrons and Sean-Paul Correll, found that scareware distributors are successfully infecting 35 million machines a month.

Social engineering attacks, often featuring social networking sites, that attempt to trick computer users into sites hosting scareware software have become a frequently used technique for distributing scareware. Tactics include manipulating the search engine rank of pages hosting scareware. Panda reckons that there are 200 different families of rogueware, with more new variants coming on stream all the time.

In a decision that could make it harder for internet users to take spammers to court, a federal appeals court has upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit against a company that sent a man more than 13,000 unsolicited emails.

A three-judge panel from the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with a lower-court judge that under a federal law that went into effect in 2004, plaintiff James S. Gordon Jr. lacked standing to sue online marketing business Virtumundo. The panel ruled that under the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing, or CAN-SPAM, act, lawsuits can only be brought by select law-enforcement agencies and providers of an IAS, or "internet access service."

Security risks of Web 2.0 tools should not be overlooked by enterprises, individuals

Like it or not, the use of Web 2.0 technology use in enterprises is here to stay. Even longstanding enterprise software providers, such as Salesforce.com, have created tools for integrating social networks into the customer support and lead generation process. And you’d be hard-pressed to find a Fortune 500 company that doesn’t, at the very least, have a corporate blog.

Over the last few weeks, two organizations issued study results focusing on the use of social networking within the enterprise. RSA Conference, in its “What Security Issues Are You Currently Facing?” report, surveyed nearly 150 C-level executives and professionals charged with directing, managing and engineering security infrastructures within their respective organizations.

Social networking and security was a consideration, however it appears that organizations thus far claim to have been minimally impacted by social network threats. According to the survey, 84 percent of respondents allow Twitter and Facebook in the enterprise, however only 3 percent were seriously affected by the recent Facebook and Twitter phishing attacks.

Updated Security researchers have uncovered critical flaws in open-source software that implements the Extensible Markup Language in a staggering array of applications used by banks, e-commerce websites, and consumers.

The bugs uncovered by researchers at Finland-based Codenomicon were contained in virtually every open-source XML library available, Ari Takanen, CTO of Finland-based security testing firm Codenomicon, told The Register. Many of them could allow attackers to crash machines running applications that use the libraries or even remotely execute malicious code. The Python and Java programming languages and Apache Xerces are already known to be affected, and Takanen said many more could be as well.

Federal prosecutors have accused a Canadian man of laundering more than $350m for offshore internet gambling operations to skirt US laws prohibiting payments to American citizens trying to cash out their winnings.

Douglas Rennick, 34, was charged with three felony counts related to the alleged scheme by the US Attorney's office in Manhattan. Between February 2007 and June 2009, he and several unnamed co-conspirators established sham businesses that provided false information to banks so they could carry out large financial transactions that otherwise would have been barred, according to an indictment filed Thursday.

As Twitter struggled to return to normal Wednesday evening, a trickle of details suggested that the outage that left 30 million users unable to use the micro-blogging service for several hours - at least in part - may have been the result of a spam campaign that targeted a single user who vocally supports the Republic of Georgia.

According to Bill Woodcock, research director at the non-profit Packet Clearing House, the torrent of traffic that brought the site to its knees wasn't the result of a traditional DDoS, or distributed denial of service attack, but rather people who clicked on a link in spam messages that referenced a well-known blogger called Cyxymu.

As spam goes, the emails looked benign enough. One of them carried the subject "Visit my blog" and contained the words "thanks for looking at my blog" in the body. They contained respective links to Cyxymu's accounts on Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal and YouTube, all of which also reported receiving abnormal amounts of traffic on Thursday.

IDG News Service - A British hacker who broke into U.S. government computer systems seeking evidence of alien life has failed in his latest efforts to block extradition to the U.S. to face trial.

On Friday, the High Court ruled the extradition of Gary McKinnon, whose hacking exploits have drawn high-profile attention from U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown and celebrities such as David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, should proceed. Karen Todner, McKinnon's attorney, said they will lodge an appeal within 28 days.

McKinnon's attorneys had asked the court to review a refusal by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for England and Wales to prosecute the him in the U.K. British prosecutors maintain that the U.S. wants jurisdiction and that most evidence and witnesses are in the U.S.

Defcon If you use cPanel to administer your website or certain Linksys or Netgear devices to route traffic over your wireless network, you're susceptible to web-based attacks that could take complete control of your systems, two security researchers said Saturday.

All three wares contain CSRF, or cross-site request forgery, holes that can be exploited when the user does nothing more than surf to the wrong site. Web-application security experts Russ McRee of HolisticInfoSec.org and Mike Bailey of Skeptikal.org said they've alerted officials at all three companies to the weaknesses and so far all have failed to fix them.

A group of teenagers have reacted to warnings that using sites like Facebook, Bebo and Myspace can leave them traumatised. The Archbishop of Westminster, the Most Reverend Vincent Nichols, says the sites encourage users to value the number rather than quality of friends they have. He’s worried this makes people get too many temporary friends instead of real, genuine ones. He said: “It’s an all or nothing syndrome that you have to have in an attempt to shore up identity. "Friendship is not a commodity, friendship is something that is hard work and enduring when it’s right.”

But speaking to Newsbeat a group of teenagers mainly rejected what the spiritual leader of the four million Catholics in England and Wales had to say. Ash is 19 and from London. He said: "These sites are just a different way of socialising and I think the nation’s the friendliest it’s ever been because of that.

The White House's acting cyber-security tsar has resigned from her post, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Melissa Hathaway told the paper she was leaving for "personal reasons" and would return to the private sector. The former strategist was appointed as acting national cyber-adviser in February and was expected to be offered the post of full time. President Barack Obama has made cyber-security a high priority for his administration. In May, the President announced plans for securing American computer networks against cyber attacks.

In recent years, US government and military bodies have reported attempts to infiltrate systems by hackers. He announced the creation of a cyber-security office in the White House, and said he would personally appoint a "cyber-tsar". Ms Hathaway was widely regarded as the person to fill that post after taking on the role as acting senior director for cyberspace for the National Security and Homeland Security Councils in February. A successor has not yet been named by the White House.

Concerted borderless cooperation is needed to tackle today's cyber-attacks, according to international agencies, the International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber Threats (IMPACT) and International Telecommunication Union (ITU). This, in response to recent reports of more than two dozen attacks against prominent government websites in South Korea and the US.

Speaking at IMPACT global headquarters in Malaysia, chairman Datuk Mohd Noor Amin said: "Though the attacks, which included websites belonging to the White House, US Treasury, and the Pentagon, were small in scale and low in sophistication, these attacks could have been more destructive."

"Websites all over the world are constantly targetted by hackers, but increasingly, the number of critical sector websites and systems being attacked has increased," said Amin. "In recent years, large scale attacks on critical infrastructures have started to take place such as the cyber-attack that occurred in Estonia in 2007 that subsequently paralysed the country's entire critical infrastructure for almost two weeks." [Read full article on infoworld...]

ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun I. Touré was last night honoured by the President of the Dominican Republic, Dr Leonel Fernández, when he was accorded the title of Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of Duarte, Sánchez and Mella (Orden al Mérito de Duarte, Sánchez y Mella).

The Order of Merit of Duarte, Sánchez and Mella is the principal Order of the Dominican Republic. It was established in 1931, and is conferred by the Head of State on both civilians and military for distinguished services. Read the information note

South Korean and the United States websites have been targets of sustained distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS) since the 4th of July, government websites as well as financial and commercial websites have been targeted with most of the targets withstanding the DDoS attacks.

At least 35 websites have been targeted by the DDoS attacks which aim to make websites unreachable by flooding them with more web traffic than they can handle, effectively taking them offline. The web traffic originates from the computers of ordinary people infected with malware, usually from visiting a compromised website, after which the attackers can command the computers to carry out the DDoS attacks.

These attacks on the US and South Korea appear to be carried out by "a few tens of thousands" compromised computers, the impact of which so far has been considerably muted, it does however demonstrate weaknesses that could be exploited to much more devastating effect.

Google has announced
they are currently developing an operating system (OS), called Chrome OS,
planned for release in the second half of 2010. Google Chrome OS, designed to be
a "fast and lightweight" operating system, will initially be targeted at
netbooks.

The operating system
is designed "for people who spend most of their time on the web" with a "minimal
user-interface" where "most of the user experience takes place on the web".
Google Chrome OS will be open source which will allow third party developers to
create applications for it: similar to the system behind much of the iPhone's
success.

With Microsoft's
Windows 7 OS set for release later on this year, whether Google's offering can challenge Microsoft's roughly 90% market share remains to be
seen.

Secret operations currently carried out by parts of the intelligence and security services will be centralised in Whitehall as part of an ongoing major review of cybersecurity, according to a report.

The Cabinet Office is due to publish the UK's version of Barack Obama's cybersecurity stategy before the summer Parliamentary recess, which begins in late July. The US President last month announced a new "cyber tsar" role and agency to oversee efforts to prepare for and respond to attacks by enemy states and organised criminals.

Canada is considering legislation allowing the country's police and national security agency to readily access the online communications and the personal information of ISP subscribers.

"We must ensure that law enforcement has the necessary tools to catch up to the bad guys and ultimately bring them to justice. Twenty-first century technology calls for 21st-century tools," Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said in announcing two new bills at a press conference in Ottawa, the CBC has reported.

Updated A small army of security and privacy researchers has called on Google to automatically encrypt all data transmitted via its Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Calendar services.

Google already uses Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (https) encryption to mask login information on this trio of cloud-based web-based applications. And netizens have the option of turning on https for all transmissions. But full-fledged https protection isn't flipped on by default.

"Google’s default settings put customers at risk unnecessarily," reads a letter lobbed to Google CEO Eric Schmidt by 37 academics and researchers. "Google’s services protect customers’ usernames and passwords from interception and theft. However, when a user composes email, documents, spreadsheets, presentations and calendar plans, this potentially sensitive content is transferred to Google’s servers in the clear, allowing anyone with the right tools to steal that information".

Every PC in China could be at risk of being taken over by malicious hackers because of flaws in compulsory government software.

The potential faults were brought to light by Chinese computer experts who said the flaw could lead to a "large-scale disaster". The Chinese government has mandated that all computers in the country must have the screening software installed. It is intended to filter out offensive material from the net.

The Chinese government said that the Green Dam Youth Escort software, as it is known, was intended to push forward the "healthy development of the internet" and "effectively manage harmful material for the public and prevent it from being spread." "We found a series of software flaws," explained Isaac Mao, a blogger and social entrepreneur in China, as well as a research fellow at Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society.

Hackers are manipulating a hot topics feature of Twitter to promote malware-infected websites. The gaming of the Twitter Trends feature recalls the manipulation of Google search results using black-hat search engine optimisation techniques.

In the case of the Twitter attack, cyber-criminals created hundreds of accounts and posted multiple messages under the topic "PhishTube Broadcast", a reference to the US rock band Phish, but containing links to a spoof pornographic Web page. The topic appeared in the Trending Topic list, achieving greater visibility and therefore more user traffic to comments made under that category.

Users intrigued enough to visit the supposed websites promoted through the Twitter social-engineering ruse risk exposure to the PrivacyCenter fake antivirus (scareware) package. The software runs a spoof scan of system before falsely informing users that their computers are infected with malware, whether they are or not, in order to induce frightened users into buying software of little or not utility.

Cybercrooks are once again taking advantage of current events to push malware.

Prurient interest in the death of Kill Bill star David Carradine is being used to promote Twitter updates containing links to sites punting rogueware. The attack is the latest in a string of assaults over the last week or so that abuse the Trending Topics feature of Twitter to promote scareware.

Meanwhile, search engine result poisoning is being used so that searches involving the disappearance of Air France Flight 447 off the coast of Brazil point to scareware affiliate websites. The complex attack uses multiple site redirections, as explained in a blog posting by Trend Micro here.

In his address to the Forum, Dr Hamadoun Touré emphasized the power of innovation and how

ICTs will play an important role in overcoming the economic crisis.

Dr Touré met His Excellency Dmitry A. Medvedev, President of the Russian Federation, who reconfirmed the commitment of the Russian Federation to ITU. During his visit, he had the opportunity to discuss with Minister Shchegolev and other senior officials key issues related to the Union's objectives, including cybersecurity, climate change and the upcoming Connect CIS Summit.

His visit generated much interest in the planned ITU ICT Exploratorium which is scheduled for opening in 2010.

Bing, Microsoft's new search engine, is now live. Launched on Monday June 1 in the United Sates, Bing will be fully deployed worldwide on Wednesday June 3. Successor to Live Search, Bing is billed as a "decision engine" designed to "enable people to find information quickly and use the information they’ve found to accomplish tasks and make smart decisions".

Bing offers a number of innovative features as well as several rebranded Live Search tools and services, such as Bing Health (formerly Live Search Health): a search engine specifically for health-related information. Of the new features, one of the most prominent is the "Explore Pane": this is intended to make Bing "a richer, more organized search experience" by consolidating related searches, search specific tools and services and a session history in a single place.

WolframAlpha

Launched on the Monday May 18, WolframAlpha is a "computational knowledge engine", designed to provide answers to factual queries by "doing computations from its own internal knowledge base", "instead of searching the web and returning links" as a search engine does.

WolframAlpha offers an innovative service very different to what is currently available in most traditional search engines. WolframAlpha will give answers to not only mathematical questions but also fact-based questions. For example a simple mathematical question: 'what is the square root of 49?' will give the answer 7. Put the same query in the Google search engine, and through Google Calculator, you will get a similar answer. However, ask a factual question, such as 'When was the United Nations founded?', and WolframAlpha will answer directly with the the date (in a variety of formats), other historic events that occurred on that day, what time the sun rose and set as well the phase of the moon.

Developed by Stephen Wolfram and Wolfram Research, WolframAlpha is built on their previous computational software platform, Mathematica, as well as algorithm discoveries published in Stephen Wolfram's book 'A New Kind of Science'.

An EU security agency is calling for greater use of advanced networking technologies - specifically IPv6, DNSSec and MPLS - to improve the resilience of communication networks.

The European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) argues that these advanced technologies have the potential to improve the security and resilience of telecom networks from hacking attacks or other forms of disruption. However, knowledge of how to deploy these commercially available next-generation technologies is thin on the ground.

ENISA advocates the pooling of best practice and operational experience as a way to bring everyone up to speed. The agency interviewed 12 network operators in the EU and found that lack of management and coordination between stakeholders, as well as a dearth of operational best practices, were potential potholes on the road to building more secure networks.

The agency carried out two reports. One looked at the benefits of the selected technologies in improving network resilience (here (pdf)) while the other looked into deployment issues and other practical concerns (here (pdf)), drawing its findings largely from interviews with network operators.

A corporate identity theft ring that exploited the identities of local corporations, religious institutions, hospitals and even schools to run a cheque fraud scam has been busted in New York.

Investigators reckon the gang of 18 suspects made millions by impersonating workers from an estimated 350 New York-based organisations. Data purchased from corrupt bank insiders was used to lay the groundwork for the scam, which relied on cashing thousands of counterfeit payroll cheques. The fraudsters also plundered the bank accounts of individual victims, using data obtained from corrupt bank insiders to transfer funds to banks under the control of the gang.

Mules were recruited as payees on the counterfeit cheques, which were forged using scanners, cheque stock, magnetic ink, company logos and specialist software. The scam ran between October 2007 and February 2009. One bank alone lost $1.4m through the scam.

US government investigators are probing breaches of two sensitive Army webservers by suspected Turkish hackers, according to a report by InformationWeek.

One of the servers, located at the Army's McAlester Ammunition Plant in Oklahoma, was penetrated on January 26, according to the publication, which cited investigative records it reviewed. The hack was carried out by a Turkey-based collective known as "m0sted" and caused people attempting to access the site to be redirected to a webpage protesting climate change.

A nasty infection that attempts to install a potent malware cocktail on the machines of end users has spread to about 30,000 websites run by businesses, government agencies and other organizations, researchers warned Friday.

The infection sneaks malicious javascript onto the front page of websites, most likely by exploiting a common application that leads to a SQL injection, said Stephan Chenette, manager for security research at security firm Websense. The injected code is designed to look like a Google Analytics script, and it uses obfuscated javascript, so it is hard to spot.

The malicious payload silently redirects visitors of infected sites to servers that analyze the end-user PC. Based on the results, it attempts to exploit one or more of about 10 different unpatched vulnerabilities on the visitor's machine. If none exist, the webserver delivers a popup window that claims the PC is infected in an attempt to trick the person into installing rogue anti-virus software.

The rogue anti-virus software uses polymorphic techniques to constantly alter its digital signature, allowing it to evade detection by the vast majority of legitimate anti-virus programs. Because it uses obfuscation, the javascript is also hard to detect by antivirus programs and impossible to spot using Google searches that scour the web for a common string or variable.

US President Barack Obama will create a new White House post that's responsible for protecting the country's critical computer networks, a step he said was crucial to confronting one of the biggest national security challenges.

For what is likely the first time ever, the leader of the free world spoke publicly about botnets, phishing, malware, and other internet-based attacks that not only threaten millions of individuals, but the country's military and intelligence networks as well. He also recounted his personal brush with cyber espionage, confirming for the first time a report that travel plans, policy papers, and other files were accessed after hackers penetrated his presidential campaign's computer system.

A compromise that is moving virally across websites is making unwitting people who surf to them part of a botnet that redirects Google search results, a security researcher has warned.

During the past week, the number of websites identified as infected have almost tripled, according to researcher Mary Landesman with real-time malware scanning specialist ScanSafe tracking the attacks since March. Normally, web compromises die out after a few weeks, as search engines and anti-virus programs grow wise to them. But that's not happening this time.

Global electricity networks could become smart grids that can help us monitor and control our energy usage, if plans from net firm Cisco take off.

The giant US firm, whose technology helps underpin the net, is building a two-way link into electricity grids. Smart grids would allow devices to communicate with utility firms to give an accurate view of energy use that could cut CO2 emissions by 211m tonnes. Cisco believes the market could be worth up to $20 billion a year. The basic premise is to link different parts of the electrical grid - from a single home to the largest of power stations - using a customised network based on Internet Protocol (IP). Cisco say the proposal would be a "once in a generation capital investment". With the rising cost of electrical power and concerns about how that power is generated - especially when it comes to fossil fuels - a number of other firms are also making a bid to modernise the electrical networks.

Facebook has been working to clean up its site after its 200 million members were targeted by hackers.

Facebook spokesperson Barry Schnitt wouldn't comment on how many accounts had been hit but he did confirm it was blocking any that had been compromised. The hackers used a common "phishing" scam to get hold of users' passwords. After breaking in to people's Facebook accounts they sent out emails to friends of members asking them to click on links to fake websites. The sites are designed to look like legitimate pages from Facebook but have been set up and are controlled by the hackers.

Spreading spam

Then it's a simple case of tricking users into handing over all sorts of details from passwords to e-mail addresses. All of this is done with the overall aim of being able to provide lists of addresses which can then be targeted to help spread spam. It's not the first time Facebook has been attacked like this. Last year a malicious virus called Koobface hit the site, tricking people into downloading it onto their computers by sending links pretending to be from friend's accounts. Security experts say part of the problem is that members are using passwords that are just too weak, ones like family or pet names that are often on a person's homepage and so can be easily guessed.

The United States' top commanding officer for the space and cyber domains told reporters last week that a cyber attack could merit a more conventional military response.

During a press briefing on Thursday, US Air Force General Kevin Chilton, who heads the US Strategic Command, said that top Pentagon advisors would not rule out a physical attack on any force that attacks the United States through the internet. Currently, the military's networks are probed thousands of times a day, but the goal of attackers seems to be espionage, not to take down critical networks, he told reporters.

The newly established Police Central e-crime Unit is unlikely to get increased UK government funding, according to a response to questions in the House by the Home Secretary on Tuesday. The reply by Jacqui Smith is a sign that the present home secretary is less inclined to invest in the nascent unit than her predecessor David Blunkett.

Liberal Democrat MP Chris Huhne asked Jacqui Smith about whether "she will make an assessment of the adequacy of the IT resources provided to Metropolitan Police officers in policing fraud". The Home Secretary responded to this question by suggesting the micro-management of resources was down to the Met Police. She also mentioned the £3.5m granted by central government over three years towards the establishment of a long-awaited central e-crime unit, Hansard reports.

Microsoft has teamed with the US government to refine a locked-down, more secure configuration of Windows XP.

Originally developed by the US Air Force in cooperation with Microsoft, the special XP set-up uses hardened Group Policy Objects (a technology in Microsoft's Active Directory) and images, which the Air Force used as the standard OS image for its desktop Windows machines.

The project evolved into the Federal Desktop Core Configuration (fdcc) recommendations maintained by US standards organisation NIST. Sys admins can download the configuration along with group policy objects.

Earlier reports by Wired suggested that Microsoft has worked with the government to develop a secure configuration of XP for use by the military and that this might be somehow out of reach to the hoi polloi, who are left with a system whose out-of-the-box configuration leaves it open to all manner of worms as soon as it's connected to the net.

Viviane Reding (EU- Commissioner for Information Society and Media) calls for a 'G12 for Internet Governance'

In a video posted on her website on May 4th, 2009, Viviane Reding (EU- Commissioner for Information Society and Media) called for greater transparency and accountability in Internet Governance as of October 2009. Commissioner Reding outlined a new governance model for the internet and called for the creation of a "G-12 for Internet Governance", an informal group of government representatives that meets at least twice a year and can make, by majority, recommendations to ICANN.

The full transcript of Commissioner Reding's message is available here.

During his visit to the Vatican on 29 April 2009, ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun I. Touré met His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI and presented to him ITU's Child Online Protection initiative (COP). COP has been established as an international collaborative network for action to promote the online protection of children worldwide by providing guidance on safe online behaviour in conjunction with other UN agencies and partners. COP's key objectives are:

US Government issues Notice of Inquiry regarding the upcoming expiration of the JPA with ICANN

The U.S. Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) seeks comment regarding the upcoming expiration of the Joint Project Agreement (JPA) with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). This agreement has been in existence since November 25, 1998, and is scheduled to expire on September 30, 2009.

The ITU Sub-Regional Seminarwas held in Belgrade, Republic of Serbia from 27-29 April. Dr Touré met with H.E. Mr Mirko Cvetkovic, Prime Minister of Serbia. As an integral part of the Seminar, the Ministerial Round Table on "Switchover from Analogue to Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting in Central and Eastern Europe" was chaired by H.E. Ms Jasna Matic, Minister of Telecommunications & Information Society, Republic of Serbia and Dr Hamadoun Touré, ITU Secretary-General.This event gathered about 155 high-level participants and gave an opportunity to better understand the complexity of the switchover from analogue to digital as well as facilitated a strategic dialogue aimed at considering the most important technical, regulatory and economical aspects of the process.

Security professionals are being called on to band together to fight the highly organised cyber criminals of the world.

The call was made at a San Francisco conference organised by security firm RSA - the largest event of its kind. RSA President Art Coviello said the online fraudsters "are not bound by any rules of law" and "control massive armies of zombie computers". Recent reports claimed cyber criminals had infiltrated everything from the US power grid to the Pentagon.

In his keynote speech to the conference, Mr Coviello urged the industry not to underestimate the global cyber security threat and the sophistication of criminals. "Our adversaries operate as a true ecosystem that thrives through interdependence and constantly adapts to ensure its growth and survival. Mr Coviello said that meant it was time for the security industry to come together to defeat the criminal element at large. "We must evolve from acting independently to solve discreet information security problems to acting collaboratively to create a common development process.

Almost two million PCs globally, including machines inside UK and US government departments, have been taken over by malicious hackers.

Security experts Finjan traced the giant network of remotely-controlled PCs, called a botnet, back to a gang of cyber criminals in Ukraine. Several PCs inside six UK government bodies were compromised by the botnet. Finjan has contacted the Metropolitan Police with details of the government PCs and it is now investigating. A spokesman for the Cabinet Office, which is charged with setting standards for the use of information technology across government, said it would not comment on specific attacks "for security reasons".

The ITU Corporate Annual Report 2008 reviews the activities of the Union for 2008, in the context of its overall Strategic Plan. The Report describes how ITU is fulfilling its seven strategic goals in progress and achievements. The message from the Secretary-General considers how Members' needs are changing and how ITU's work programme has been reviewed, in light of the financial crisis. ITU Corporate Annual Report 2008 is available online free of charge.

Nine suspects in a banking Trojan case have been arrested by specialist cybercops from the UK's new Police Central E-Crime Unit (PCeU). The suspects - four women and five men - were arrested following police raids in south east London. Investigators reckon the group of UK-based eastern European nationals used malware planted on compromised machines to steal login credentials and plunder online banking accounts.

The arrests follow the establishments of a virtual crime force, involving more than 50 officers from the PCeU and the Met's specialist crime directorate. Deputy assistance commissioner Janet Williams, ACPO lead for e-crime, said Wednesday's operation illustrated that the long-awaited national e-crime unit was already up and running Computer Weekly reports.

Interpol plans to distribute a Microsoft DIY computer forensics tool to its 187 member countries under an agreement announced Wednesday.

Cofee, short for Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor, is a thumb drive containing more than 150 investigative applications police can use to collect digital evidence at crime scenes. When Microsoft announced the free tool last year, it said some 2,000 officers in 15 countries were using it.

The proliferation of cell phones, digital cameras, and other electronics devices means that even old-world crimes such as muggings and burglaries have the potential to be cracked by sifting through digital footprints inadvertently left behind by perpetrators. But collecting that evidence and preserving its integrity so it can be admitted into court trials isn't easy.

Cofee is designed to ease that burden by providing investigators with easy-to-use tools that allows them to collect electronic data on the fly. It also allows them to collect data without necessarily having to lug gear to headquarters first. Not that Cofee has been well received by everyone. Some of the more conspiratorially minded posited that some of the password-cracking features worked by exploiting backdoors secretly built into Windows. Microsoft has insisted Cofee is solely a collection of forensics tools.

Mr Udo Helmbrecht, President of the Federation Office for Information Security (BSI) paid a visit to Dr Touré, on 14 April The presentations by both BSI and ITU were informative and productive meeting and will lead to further discussions between ITU and ENISA. Future collaboration between ITU, BSI, ENISA and the Federal Government of Germany is envisaged in the domain of cybersecurity. The ENISA Management Board has nominated Mr Udo Helmbrecht as the new Executive Director.

Details of user e-mails, website visits and net phone calls will be stored by internet service providers (ISPs) under an EU directive.

All ISPs in the European Union will have to store the records for a year. An EU directive which requires telecoms firms to hold on to telephone records for 12 months is already in force. The data stored does not include the content of e-mails and websites, nor a recording of a net phone call, but is used to determine connections between individuals.

The IGF secretariat has initiated the process of formal consultation with the IGF Forum participants in accordance with Paragraph 76 of the Tunis Agenda for the Information Society which calls on the Secretary-General “to examine the desirability of the continuation of the Forum, in formal consultation with Forum participants”. This consultation will be held at the Sharm El Sheikh meeting.

As a first step, the IGF Secretariat has posted anonline survey for stakeholders to provide feedback on the IGF process. It's at:

The comments received by April 24th would be put in a synthesis paper, conceived as a rolling document. A first document would be made available for the 13 May Open Consultations and a revised version would be made available for the 16 September Open Consultations. The final version would be submitted to the IGF meeting in Sharm El Sheikh.

During the UN CEB meeting held at UNESCO in Paris, Dr Touré took the opportunity to have extensive talks with French Government officials and industry Leaders, touching upon issues of great importance to both France and ITU: The negative impact of the economic crisis on the ICT sector as well as the solutions and opportunities ICTs present for global economic revival. The promotion of the forthcoming ITU Telecom World 2009 was received positively.

The United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB)

The United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB) Spring Session was hosted by UNESCO in Paris, 4-5 April 2009. The Final Report is currently under review. The Autumn Session will be hosted by UNIDO in Vienna, Austria, 30-31 October 2009.

Security experts have made a breakthrough in their five-month battle against the Conficker worm, with the discovery that the malware leaves a fingerprint on infected machines that is easy to detect using a variety of off-the-shelf network scanners.

The finding means that, for the first time, administrators around the world have easy-to-use tools to positively identify machines on their networks that are contaminated by the worm. As of mid-Monday, signatures will be available for at least half a dozen network scanning programs, including the open-source Nmap, McAfee's Foundstone Enterprise and Nessus, made by Tenable Network Security.

Up to now there were only two ways to detect Conficker, and neither was easy. One was to monitor outbound connections for each computer on a network, an effort that had already proved difficult for organizations with machines that count into the hundreds of thousands or millions. With the advent of the Conficker C variant, traffic monitoring became a fruitless endeavour because the malware has been programmed to remain dormant until April 1.

US senators have drafted legislation that would give the federal government unprecedented authority over the nation's critical infrastructure, including the power to shut down or limit traffic on private networks during emergencies.

The bill would also establish a broad set of cybersecurity standards that would be imposed on the government and the private sector, including companies that provide software, IT work or other services to networks that are deemed to be critical infrastructure. It would also mandate licenses for all individuals administering to strategically important networks.

The bill, which is being co-sponsored by Senate Commerce Committee chairman John Rockefeller IV and Senator Olympia Snowe, was expected to be referred to a senate committee on Wednesday. Shortly after a working draft of the legislation began circulating, some industry groups lined up to criticize it for giving the government too much control over the internet and the private companies that make it possible.

The chaos predicted by some as the Conficker worm updates itself have so far failed to materialise.

There had been concerns that the worm could trigger poisoned machines to access personal files, send spam, clog networks or crash sites. Many of the infected machines are based in Asia where there have been no reports of unusual PC behaviour. Conficker is believed to have infected up to 15 million computers to date. Those monitoring the progress of the worm as 1 April dawned around the globe said there was no evidence it was doing anything other than modifying itself to be harder to exterminate.

The headquarters of the global coalition to tackle the world’s most serious cybersecurity threats, backed by the United Nations International Telecommunication Union (ITU), was inaugurated outside of the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur today.

The new state-of-the-art facilities of the International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber-Threats (IMPACT) in Cyberjaya will host the ITU’s Global Cybersecurity Agenda (GCA), which promotes international cooperation to make cyberspace more secure in an increasingly networked information society.

The joint effort by the ITU and IMPACT – an initiative which brings together governments, industry leaders and cybersecurity experts to enhance the global community’s capacity to prevent, defend and respond to cyberthreats – aims to provide real-time analysis, aggregation and dissemination of global cyber threat information.

“Cybersecurity is one of the most critical issues of our time,” said Hamadoun Touré, ITU Secretary-General, noting that the problem demands “a truly global approach.”

Last September, the heads of ITU and IMPACT signed an agreement to operationalize the GCA at IMPACT’s Cyberjaya site.

Although the GCA will be housed at the IMPACT centre, ITU will have a “virtual showcase” at its headquarters in Geneva of the early warning system, crisis management and real-time analysis of global cyber threats.

Geneva, 20 March 2009 - The global headquarters of the International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber Threats (IMPACT) was inaugurated today in Cyberjaya on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The new IMPACT facilities will host ITU's Global Cybersecurity Agenda (GCA), which is an international framework for cooperation aimed at finding strategic solutions to boost confidence and security in an increasingly networked information society.

The new IMPACT headquarters was inaugurated by Malaysia's Prime Minister Dato' Seri Abdullah Haji Ahmad Badawi, who is also Chairman of IMPACT's International Advisory Board, and ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré.

IMPACT's headquarters will, through the partnership with ITU, run the operations of the Global Cybersecurity Agenda (GCA) and provide services to interested ITU Member States. The event provided an operational physical home for the GCA and made possible its transition from strategy into operations. This transition is led by Mr. Sami Al-Basheer, Director of ITU's Telecommunication Developpement Bureau. The GCA through its partnership with IMPACT enters a phase of deployment in 20 countries with 50 planned for the next 12 months. During the event, ITU logo was unveiled by ITU Secretary-General, Malaysian Prime Minister and IMPACT's Chairman.

Malicious software may just be a property of the network, says regular contributor Bill Thompson

The Conficker worm will be active again on 1 April, according to an analysis of its most recent variant, Conficker.C, by the net security firm CA.

This malicious piece of software, also known as Downup, Downadup and Kido, spreads among computers running most variants of the Windows operating system and turns them into nodes on a multi-million member "botnet" of zombie computers that can be controlled remotely by the worm's as yet unidentified authors.

Since it first appeared in October 2008 it has apparently infected more than 15 million computers around the internet, though even that number is no more than an educated guess because the worm works very hard to disguise its presence on a PC.

Security researchers from Sophos have discovered sophisticated malware that siphons payment card information out of automatic teller machines made by Diebold and possibly other manufacturers.

Sophos researcher Vanja Svajcer found three samples after combing through VirusTotal and a similar online database earlier this month. If installed, all three trojans contained functions that allowed them to log information recorded by an ATM's magnetic card reader. They also appeared to include routines for encrypting the stolen data and instructions for retrieving the captured passwords using the ATM's printing capabilities. That would allow mules outfitted with the proper codes to fetch the pilfered information from the targeted machines, Svajcer told The Register.

Diebold became aware of the trojans in January, after an incident "isolated in Russia" attempted to use the malware to intercept sensitive information, according to an advisory the company sent its customers. Suspects in the incident have been apprehended, and Diebold is working with authorities "to assist with the investigation into these recent crimes," the advisory added.